London - Scientists are getting closer to
building life from scratch and technology pioneers are taking
notice, with record sums moving into a field that could deliver
novel drugs, materials, chemicals and even perfumes.
Despite ethical and safety concerns, investors are attracted
by synthetic biology's wide market potential and the plummeting
cost of DNA synthesis, which is industrialising the writing of
the genetic code that determines how organisms function.
While existing biotechnology is already used to make
medicines like insulin and genetically modified crops,
synthesizing whole genes or genomes gives an opportunity for far
more extensive changes.
Matt Ocko, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist whose past
investments include Facebook, Uber and Zynga
, believes the emerging industry has passed the
"epiphany" moment needed to prove it can deliver economic value.
"Synthetic biology companies are now becoming more like the
disruptive, industrial-scale value propositions that define any
technology business," he said.
"The things that sustain and accelerate this industry are
today more effective, lower cost, more precise and more
repeatable. That makes it easier to extract disruptive value."
Ocko, whose Data Collective firm has invested in companies
including organism design firm Gingko Bioworks and bioengineer
Zymergen, is not alone.
Other tech veterans backing the new wave of "synbio"
start-ups include Jerry Yang, Marc Andreessen, Peter Thiel and
Eric Schmidt, famous for their roles at Yahoo,
Netscape, PayPal and Google respectively.
Uncertanties
Experts meeting in London this week said the science toolkit
was improving fast and the cost of synthesising DNA was now 100
times cheaper than in 2003, although uncertainties remain about
regulation and the public's appetite for tinkering with life.
The global conference hosted by Imperial College London,
bringing together scientists and money people, comes four weeks
after researchers announced they were close to building a
complete artificial genome for baker's yeast.
This ambitious project has brought complex artificial life a
big step closer because yeast is a eukaryote, an organism whose
cells contain a nucleus, just like human cells.
The yeast work shows how DNA can be manipulated on a large
scale, with genetic code increasingly treated like a programming
language in which binary 1s and 0s are replaced by DNA's four
chemical building blocks, abbreviated as A, T, G, C.
A growing emphasis on computing is closing the gap between
biology and traditional tech, even though this is an area that
remains unpredictable, variable and complex.
"The intersection of biology and technology is a difficult
place to be because of different cultures and languages, but I
think we are breaking through some of those barriers," said
Thomas Bostick, former head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
who now leads biotech firm Intrexon's environment unit.
The idea that engineering life can be broken down into data
and coding is part of the appeal for tech investors.
"DNA is seen as the next programmable matter and that is
what a lot of the Silicon Valley investors are excited about,"
said John Cumbers, founder of synthetic biology network
SynBioBeta.
"They've witnessed the power of software over the last 25
years and they are looking for the next big thing."
Data from SynBioBeta shows a record $1.21 billion was
invested in the sector worldwide in 2016, a threefold increase
from five years earlier, while the number of firms in the sector
has almost doubled to 411.
A range of companies are springing up, from those producing
new chemicals for industry to providers of DNA synthesis and
related software, like US-based Twist Bioscience and Britain's
Synthace.
Work is also advancing by leaps and bounds in the
complementary area of gene editing now being embraced by many of
the world's top drugmakers.
Change of tack
The current product focus represents a change of tack from
the first widely tipped application of synthetic biology in
making biofuels from engineered algae.
In the event, algal biofuel proved a lot harder to scale up
than expected and a tumbling oil price during the Great
Recession of the late 2000s undercut the business model.
Drew Endy of Stanford University believes the case for using
synthetic biology to take on gasoline never stacked up.
"Why would you bank your whole platform on a bulk
high-volume, low-price, low-margin product? It's baffling, not
strategic," he said.
Today's synbio firms are looking at more niche and expensive
products, such as potent painkillers and cancer medicines made
in yeast cells - or fabrics with novel properties, although some
have only reached demonstration stage.
California-based Bolt Threads recently debuted a limited
edition $314 necktie made from yeast-derived spider's silk and
Japanese rival Spiber has made a concept piece spider-silk parka
jacket.
Boston-based Gingko Bioworks, meanwhile, is developing a
rose oil for French fragrance house Robertet and
Switzerland's Evolva has developed a vanillin, or
vanilla extract, that, unlike most vanilla flavouring, is not
made from petrochemicals.
In some areas - especially anything to do with food or the
environment - synthetic biology is already running into
criticism. Friends of the Earth was quick to condemn the new
yeast-derived vanillin as "extreme" genetic engineering.
Other controversies appear inevitable as synthetic
biologists push the envelope with more extreme projects, such as
a Harvard team's "Jurassic Park"-style proposal to resurrect the
woolly mammoth by adapting the Asian elephant genome.
Intrexon's Bostick, whose firm is releasing millions of
genetically manipulated mosquitoes in Brazil in a bid to slash
populations of Zika-carrying insects, believes each synthetic
biology scheme has to prove its benefits outweigh the risks.
"There are always pros and cons, and we owe people a fair
and balanced assessment."