ClimateHack’s Post

Synthetic Biology Is Getting Closer to Industrial Scale

Will synthetic biology ever launch? 🚀 An opinion piece arguing that synthetic biology is all hype and no product (link below) was published coincidental with this week’s SynBioBeta conference (surely not a coincidence tho). It’s a heavy accusation but not one that should be dismissed out of hand. One of my favorite panel questions from the audience this week echoed the charge - the questioner had spent 30 years in this field himself and was still waiting to see commercial proof of its promise. Will we ever make products, he asked? I’ve thought about this question a lot this week through the conference. As a first time attendee to SynBioBeta, I was expecting it to be a bit of a “scene,” but what I found instead was a community grappling (transparently and honestly) with a fundamentally new technical paradigm that is HARD for very real reasons (e.g. petroleum is cheap!) - but that also has the potential to unlock a step change in how our society looks and feels. It’s easy to forget that technical revolutions take time. The first commercially-relevant steam engine was launched in 1712, a full century before the Industrial Revolution it enabled was fully and obviously in operation. Will lots of early companies burn mountains of cash and go out of business in the process of discovering and trying to solve the biggest challenges? Yup. And while searching for technoeconomic and business models that make sense in this field? Yup. Will it take more than one investment cycle to see the full evolution and deployment of this field? Yup. The evaporation of easy money and thinning patience for big promises will winnow the current synthetic biology startup landscape, but the field (and the people and their experience) will remain - and the next generation of companies will be wiser, more disciplined, more focused - and more successful. One of the big themes this year was that synthetic biology companies need to SHIP. As confident as I am that the next 12 months will bring more company “failures” in this space, I’m just as confident we’ll see real, durable progress on launching focused, valuable products - and that this will create concrete and convincing steps towards unveiling the potential we all know this field has. #syntheticbiology #bioengineering #future #molecularfarming #foodtech #synbiobeta #synbiobeta2024

One of the exciting applications of emerging biotechnology is enabling a more vibrant environment through a process called bioremediation. This latest Building the Future with Biotech paper covers how biotech advancements in plants and microbes can be used to absorb, store, and break down contaminants in our soil and water. Read here: https://lnkd.in/gwrBqpYf The #NSCEB believes that all Americans, including policymakers, students at all levels of #education, current and future #biotechnology workers, and the broader public, should one day be able to use and engage with biotechnology in the same way that they do with computers. As part of the Commission's work to prepare a bio-ready U.S. Government and bio-literate America, you can find white papers on biotechnology-related topics including Biomanufacturing, AIxBio, Bioliteracy for the Age of Biology, and more at https://biotech.senate.gov

Biotechnology : This is what the world of tomorrow looks like. The image of this robot says it all. What is biotechnology ? 1. It is the use of living beings, in particular microorganisms, in industrial, agricultural, medical or technological applications. 2. It is the application of the principles of technological engineering to the living world. 3. The application of science and technology to living organisms, as well as to their components, products and models, to modify living or non-living materials for the purposes of producing knowledge, goods and services ".

Biotechnology : This is what the world of tomorrow looks like. The image of this robot says it all. What is biotechnology ? 1. It is the use of living beings, in particular microorganisms, in industrial, agricultural, medical or technological applications. 2. It is the application of the principles of technological engineering to the living world. 3. The application of science and technology to living organisms, as well as to their components, products and models, to modify living or non-living materials for the purposes of producing knowledge, goods and services.

Biotechnology : This is what the world of tomorrow looks like. The image of this robot says it all. What is biotechnology ? 1. It is the use of living beings, in particular microorganisms, in industrial, agricultural, medical or technological applications. 2. It is the application of the principles of technological engineering to the living world. 3. The application of science and technology to living organisms, as well as to their components, products and models, to modify living or non-living materials for the purposes of producing knowledge, goods and services.

🌱🧬 "Exploring the Future of Bioeconomy: The Power of Biotechnology & Synthetic Biology 🌍🔬. Cambridge Consultants' latest report dives into how emerging technologies are reshaping the bioeconomy landscape. Discover how the fusion of biotech innovations leads to scalable, profitable, and sustainable bioprocesses. 🌟 The bioeconomy is on the verge of a transformative leap, and this report outlines the exciting possibilities that lie ahead: https://lnkd.in/gVijZ3jA #bioeconomy #biotechnology #syntheticbiology #deeptech #bioprocessing 

Biotechnology : This is what the world of tomorrow looks like. The image of this robot says it all. What is biotechnology ? 1. It is the use of living beings, in particular microorganisms, in industrial, agricultural, medical or technological applications. 2. It is the application of the principles of technological engineering to the living world. 3. The application of science and technology to living organisms, as well as to their components, products and models, to modify living or non-living materials for the purposes of producing knowledge, goods and services ".

Biotechnology : This is what the world of tomorrow looks like. The image of this robot says it all. What is biotechnology ? 1. It is the use of living beings, in particular microorganisms, in industrial, agricultural, medical or technological applications. 2. It is the application of the principles of technological engineering to the living world. 3. The application of science and technology to living organisms, as well as to their components, products and models, to modify living or non-living materials for the purposes of producing knowledge, goods and services ".

Engineering biology/synthetic biology/industrial biotech - using biology to do stuff - is high up on the agenda of many governments, including in the UK. And rightly (essentially) so. We are already using biology to do a big bunch of stuff - we just don't hear about it, and it seems to be mostly in the therapeutic space. Making vaccines. Making insulin. But there is a literal world of stuff we can make using biology - specifically using microorganisms. Bacteria, yeast and other fungi, and algae can be used to make chemicals typically made using 'orrible chemistry. ' orrible chemistry vs a tank of sugary water and yeast anyone? Materials. Dyes. Flavours. Construction material. Cosmetics. Electronics. Name me something and I'll find someone using biotech to make it. Or I'll set one up myself! Enter the age of biomanufacturing. The true point at which biotech has made it, for me, is when we can use it to churn out low cost commodities - and still have a viable company. Many biotechs sell the sustainability side of things, but are forced to focus on the low vol/high value products for proof of concept and some cash. The commodity side of things will probably only pay off when we level the playing field with oil. Whenever that will be. But what CAN help is better, faster, stronger microbes, programmed to focus on what we want. Better, stronger, faster =cheaper product. Some microbes can naturally do what we want them to do. But even these guys could use a but of 'improvement'. Some microbes are good workhorses but don't have the right bits to make what we want. So we can nick the bits we want from something else and stitch them in. Some microbes we can make better by just letting them grow, maybe with a bit of selection pressure, and let the natural process of evolution work its magic (speeded up!). Joe Price and friends at Evolutor have put down their thoughts here around developing microbial strains for biomanufacturing, and the combination of directed engineerings and evolution, to more fully unlock that design space. https://lnkd.in/ehXV5azn *edit - I'm sure there is a lot of chemistry that is very elegant and beautiful and non-'orrible. #syntheticbiology #biotechnology #innovation #founders #postdoc #startups #phd