Genengnews, Vol, 41, No.9, 2021.09

Clearing the Way for a Synthetic Biology Tipping Point

While I acknowledge the bigness of the challenges we face, I am optimistic about the potential for “smallness” to deliver critical breakthroughs that will help us navigate the pressures and demands of the 21st century. By smallness, I’m talking, of course, about the building blocks of life, especially nucleic acids and proteins that can be engineered to be powerful agents to do and make things that would be otherwise unimaginable. Microbes that make fuel. On-demand vaccines that fight emerging pathogens. Organisms that can clean up waste and manufacture products sustainably. Engineered crops that resist pests and require less water.

These advances and ones like them have long sounded like science fiction, but with $4.6 billion invested in synthetic biology in Q1 2021 alone, companies such as Ginkgo Bioworks, Novozymes, Gevo, and others are poised to bring these technologies into reality.

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https://www.genengnews.com/commentary/point-of-view/clearing-the-way-for-a-synthetic-biology-tipping-point/