The Century of Biology is upon us
How synthetic biology and emerging bioeconomy promises to make industrial processes cleaner, simpler and more sustainable
It has become part of the accepted wisdom to say that the twentieth century was the century of physics and the twenty-first century will be the century of biology - Freeman Dyson, Our Biotech Future, 2007
The 20th century was the century of physics. It gave us nuclear power, electronics, computers and the internet. However, the 20th century was built on top of fossil fuels, which we used as a source of energy and a starting point for many industrial processes. While we've made tremendous progress over the last 100 years, it has come at a cost: a polluted planet with the looming threat of a climate catastrophe on the horizon.
The challenges we are going to face in 21st century will require new ways of thinking and solving problems. One of the most promising and exciting emerging field of engineering is synthetic biology. Synthetic biology represents a radical shift in manufacturing philosophy, emphasizing growth over fabrication. This new approach to bio-based industrial processes promises cleaner, simpler, and more sustainable products and processes.
In this article, we will explore how synthetic biology reimagines the various manufacturing processes and lays the ground for the emerging bioeconomy.
Synthetic biology (also referred to as synbio) is concerned with the creation of new living systems through deliberate design, ranging from modifying existing organisms to enable them to perform new functions, to creating living organisms from non-living components. Another way of thinking about synthetic biology is as a combination of biology and engineering. Instead of relying on artisanal, handcrafted methods of creating new living organisms, synthetic biology introduces an engineering mindset and principles into biological systems. Just as engineering takes scientific discoveries and uses them to create useful items, synthetic biology uses our understanding of biology to design useful things from the building blocks of life.
Biology + Engineering = Synthetic biology
Synthetic biology is a combination of multiple trends and technological advancements that started transforming bioengineering around the early 2000s. This includes cheaper and more powerful tools for reading, writing, and editing DNA, as well as the development of more advanced machine learning algorithms and software, and more capable and affordable robots. Synthetic biology also introduced engineering principles into biology, such as the “design, build, test, learn” loop, standardisation of parts and automation to move biology from the realm of science into the field of engineering.
The cost of sequencing DNA has dropped dramatically over the last 20 years. The Human Genome Project cost about $2.7 billion (equivalent to about $5 billion today) when it was completed in 2003. Today, it costs less than $1,000 to sequence a human genome.
Synthesising DNA is not as cheap as sequencing yet but enormous progress in this area has been made, too. And as for editing, CRISPR has been the driving force advancing gene editing techniques. As new editing techniques like prime editing or base editing enter the stage, bioengineers gain more precision and control over the DNA sequences.
Better DNA sequencing and synthesis methods, combined with the introduction of the engineering practice of using standardized parts, gave rise to standardized, interchangeable biological components. Just like an engineer does not have to design new screws, nuts or washers (unless it is absolutely necessary) and can use existing, standardized parts, bioengineers can use databases such as BioBricks to build desired genetic circuits. These parts then can be imported into bio-CAD software which helps design, model and simulate new organisms, which is another concept borrowed from engineering.
Alongside bio-CAD software, advances in computational biology and the introduction of machine-learning tools greatly expanded what bioengineers can do. With tools like AlphaFold, bioengineers can predict what the proteins they design will look like, or can grab one of over 200 million protein structures already predicted by AlphaFold. Now, with the help of generative AI, we can generate and sieve through thousands of candidate proteins to find the ones best suited to cure a disease or to be a building block of a larger system.
Applying the engineering mindset also makes bioengineers ask themselves how they can automate their work. The introduction of automation and robotics into biolabs enables bioengineers to run thousands of experiments to find a handful of those that work. Those thousands of repetitive experiments can be done by robots, leaving bioengineers to spend time doing more productive tasks.
What can we do with synthetic biology?
Synthetic biology may not be in the spotlight like artificial intelligence is today, yet it is a burgeoning field with the promise to transform drug production, agriculture, manufacturing, and more. Some compare biotech's current position to where computers were at the dawn of the information revolution in the 1960s and 1970s. Back then, these vast number-crunching machines, accessible only to governments, top universities, and the largest companies, began to become cheaper and more accessible. More people started to have access to experiment with computers, write their own programs and imagine what could be possible with these new machines.
Now, as tools for engineering biology become cheaper, more accessible, and increasingly powerful each year, a new generation of bioengineers and bioentrepreneurs is beginning not only to imagine what is possible but also to turn those dreams into reality.
A prime example that hints at the potential of bioengineering is the genetically engineered bacteria that produce human insulin. Before these bacteria were developed, insulin for diabetes treatment was primarily extracted from the pancreas of cattle and pigs, which sometimes caused allergic reactions due to slight differences from human insulin. However, thanks to genetically engineered E. coli bacteria, insulin can now be produced in large quantities in industrial vats. This eliminated the need to extract insulin from animals, making the production process simpler and more cost-effective. Moreover, the insulin produced in this manner is safer, as it is identical to the insulin our bodies produce naturally. A similar approach can be applied to other drugs, as well as materials and food, making their production process simpler, cheaper and safer.
Replacing oil as a starting point for many industrial processes
Most of the materials making objects surrounding us or the clothes we wear started their life as crude oil. The petrochemical industry, which reached a market size of $616 billion in 2023, takes 10 billion tons of fossil fuels per year and turns them into plastics from which we make almost everything that surrounds us. Even the clothes we wear and the pharmaceuticals we take are made from fossil fuels. We are heavily dependent on oil, a resource that sooner or later will run out, not only as a source of energy but also as a starting point for many industrial processes.
The same ideas and techniques used to create insulin-producing bacteria can be applied to material production. Materials that we currently derive from oil could instead be produced using biological processes. Just as we have engineered bacteria to produce insulin, we could engineer bacteria, or even an entire ecosystem of microorganisms, to consume inexpensive plant-based feedstocks as a starting point to transform them into useful materials through a series of biological processes.
Tulipanin A is not the only compound known to science with such potential. We also have methods for producing nylon using bacteria, and there may be many more compounds that could enable us to manufacture materials in a sustainable and clean manner. Some of these compounds might be hidden within obscure papers, waiting to be rediscovered, while others could be found in nature. AI tools could sift through academic literature to identify promising candidates or even generate new ones from scratch. Computer simulations can narrow down thousands of potential candidates to just a handful of the most promising ones, which then can be further tested either with computational tools or with real organisms.
The process of producing these compounds is straightforward and resembles brewing more than traditional chemical industrial processes. It involves replacing chemical reactions with a series of enzymes that transform the input material into the desired product, all occurring within genetically modified bacteria—a tiny biofactory.
Agriculture and food production
Agriculture and food production is another important area where synthetic biology can make a massive impact.
One application of synthetic biology in agriculture is genetically modifying crops to be more nutritious. We can also modify crops to be more resilient or to require less water to grow. But we can also create new organisms to support the optimal growth of crop plants. For instance, we could engineer bacteria that produce fertilisers directly in the soil, thus reducing or maybe even removing the need to use fertilisers.
Similar to how synbio enables the reimagining of manufacturing processes using genetically modified microorganisms, we can apply the same principles to animal-based products. Instead of relying on traditional dairy farms for milk production, we could engineer bacteria to produce the milk of any animal (including human breast milk) in steel vats. This approach uses less space and fewer resources to produce cruelty-free dairy products. Additionally, reducing our dependency on farm animals is feasible by creating lab-grown meat or developing plant-based meat substitutes.
These and other applications of synthetic biology in agriculture and food production hold the promise of transforming our food production methods. They aim to make the entire process more resource-efficient, requiring less water, land, pesticides, and fertilizers, minimizing the environmental impact of agriculture while maintaining or even increasing the current food production levels.
Medicine and drug production
I previously shared the example of how genetically modified bacteria can produce human insulin. A similar approach can be applied to producing other drugs, making them cheaper, safer, and more accessible. However, this is not the only way synthetic biology can transform medicine.
The development and production of mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 would not be so quick without tools and practises developed by synthetic biology. The DNA of the virus was sequenced very early into the pandemic and then was distributed digitally to labs across the world to better understand what we were dealing with and to develop a vaccine as soon as possible. Without these tools, the development of mRNA vaccine for COVID-19 would take years, not months. The success of mRNA vaccines and the progress made since 2020 opens the possibility of developing vaccines for other diseases, with cancer being one on the top of the list.
And many more…
Just as computers and the internet have transformed every aspect of our lives, synthetic biology has the potential to do the same. Industries such as manufacturing, agriculture, food production, and medicine are prime examples where synthetic biology is expected to have a significant impact. These are massive sectors, worth billions of dollars, offering synbio startups a realistic opportunity to carve out a small niche and expand from there.
Just as computers and the internet have opened new possibilities and inspired new dreams, synthetic biology promises to do the same. We can unleash our imagination and imagine a future in which we grow solutions to our problems as much as we build them. Imagine self-healing roads inspired by corals, or replacing streetlights with trees that glow. We could restore wildlife, including resurrecting extinct species, or engineer organisms capable of surviving on other planets to assist in their terraformation. Or make plants with silicon leaves functioning as solar arrays to produce energy, and genetically engineered insects serving as biological robots. Instead of traditional mining techniques, we could genetically engineer earthworms to extract metals like aluminium and titanium from clay, or genetically modified seaweed to harvest magnesium or gold from seawater. And how about exploring art, novel experiences, or new forms of entertainment crafted through biology?
While these ideas might seem like unrealistic dreams borrowed from sci-fi or solarpunk stories, it's worth remembering that personal computers, 3D printers, smartphones, conversational AIs, and humanoid robots once seemed just as fantastical.
The emerging bioeconomy
Where are we right now in the early stages of the creation of bioeconomy, an economic system that uses biological resources, processes, and principles to sustainably produce goods and services across all sectors of trade and industry. Synthetic biology, the combination of engineering and biology, will play a central role in bioeconomies of the future. Today, synbio startups and scale-ups build the foundations for the bioeconomy to emerge.
According to the 2023 SynBioBeta Investment Report, the investments in synthetic biology companies were steadily growing, reaching the peak in 2021. The VC funding downturn of 2022 and 2023 did not spare synthetic biology, which saw a decrease in investments just like many other sectors.
Health and medicine are the main drivers of investments in biotech which account for almost 80% of investments in Q1 of 2023, according to SynBioBeta’s report. Other sectors, like agriculture, materials or food, are still relatively new to synthetic biology. Some of them, like DNA storage, are still in mostly research phases and are just starting to attract attention from early-stage investors.
Seeing health and medicine receiving the vast majority of investments is not surprising when we remind ourselves about the close links between biotech and pharma. However, as the synbio matures and develops new tools, we can see it expanding to other sectors and industries. At the moment, most of those endeavours that have produced a working product and process to make it are working out the unit economics and how to scale it up.
Some of synbio startups managed to get partnerships with established companies. Genomatica, for example, has secured in 2021 a multiyear deal with Lululemon to replace conventional nylon with their plant-based nylon. As synbio gets better and attracts more attention, it will enter other sectors and industries, from cosmetics to manufacturing and chemical production. The idea of growing and culturing the products will have a massive impact on these multi-billion, sometimes even trillion-dollar businesses.
Governments across the world also recognise the importance of having a thriving bioeconomy and biotech industry. In 2022, US President Joe Biden issued an Executive Order to advance biotechnology and the creation of a bioeconomy in the US. The UK government has published a plan to invest £2 billion to “seize the potential of engineering biology”. The EU, China and other countries also noticed the importance of synbio and have announced similar programs to stimulate their local bioeconomies.
Apart from investors and government grants, the synbio community has been experimenting with new ways of funding research programs or early-stage companies. One of them is embracing the DeSci movement, which aims to aims to address the mismatched incentives in scientific research, through raising funds for innovative projects using blockchain technologies like DAOs and NFTs. Many of those ideas funded by DeSci will go nowhere but there may be a handful that could turn into products and viable businesses. There are a number of DeSci projects, each focusing on a specific area of research, like longevity, women’s health or general synbio projects.
The Century of Biology
Synthetic biology is one of the most promising and exciting emerging technologies. It may not be in a spotlight like AI or humanoid robots are today but has the opportunity to completely rethink how we produce everything from food and drugs to materials making objects surrounding us. The starting point for these new, based on biology processes is plant-based materials, reducing our dependency on fossil fuels for producing materials or animals for producing food. Synthetic biology promises to transform how we make almost everything in a way that is sustainable, and ethical and does not exploit the environment.
If the 20th century was the century of physics, then the 21st century could be the century of biology.
This is the first article in a series exploring synthetic biology and its impact on industry and society. The follow-up articles will dive deeper into topics such as biosecurity, bioeconomy, and how synthetic biology can reshape various industries and how we think about the world.
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Promising... Just so long as we pay due regard to ethical and moral safeguards. And don't allow xenobots to escape into the environment.
Look forward to that. I for one will be much happier if xenobots are not permitted to escape into the environment at all...!