Abstract

Synthetic biology is an emerging and highly promising discipline, although research in the field is concentrated in developed countries. Within this framework, the present research maps the field of synthetic biology in Chile with the aim of describing the collaboration networks, the characteristics of the researchers and the thematic lines that make up this field in a peripheral country. The work has followed a descriptive non-experimental quantitative study design. Based on a corpus of 89 publications authored by researchers affiliated to Chile, a co-authorship network of 375 nodes and another network of co-occurrence of keywords composed of 290 nodes were constructed. Scientometric and social network analysis techniques were applied to these networks. The results show a low-density network in the field of synthetic biology in Chile, which is fragmented into 48 components. Likewise, six lines of research have been identified, among which a productive emphasis dominates, although there are also clusters oriented towards basic science and the social dimension of synthetic biology.