My name is Ruud ter Meulen, and I am Professor and Director of the Centre for Ethics in Medicine of the University of Bristol, Before my appointment in Bristol I was Director of the Institute of Bioethics in Maastricht and Profesor at the University of Maastricht. Profile: I am particularly interested in justice in health care, ethics of new biotechnologies, human enhancement, the ethics of research, care of older people, and evidence-based medicine. I have co-ordinated several international research projects in the field of bioethics, many of them funded in the various framework programs of the European Commission. I was co-ordinator of the EPOCH project on the role of ethics in public policy regarding new biotechnologies and of the SYBHEL project on ethical, legal and social issues of synthetic biology as applied to health. My role in SYNERGENE is to support the activities of the Centre for Public Engagement of our University in Area 2 and to collaborate with the other partners on ethical, social and legal issues regarding synthetic biology.