Synthetic Biology: New Tools for an Industry at an Inflection Point

Опубликовано 22 июня 2016, 19:59

Since the popularization of the term 'synthetic biology' over a decade ago, a new community of biological engineers has emerged on to the scene. Thousands of practitioners, students, and entrepreneurs have joined the movement to ‘make biology easier to engineer' and as a result, both the field and the industry has developed at a rapid pace worldwide. In 2015 more than $500m has been raised by synthetic biology companies such as Twist Bioscience, Ginkgo Bioworks, Bolt Threads and Synthace to scale and propel their tools, platforms and products to market. In this most recent wave, some of techs most prestigious investors such as Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt, Paul Graham, Yuri Milner, Jerry Yang, and Max Levchin have made significant investments betting on what they think will be the next industrial revolution... the industrialization of biology. John Cumbers has been in the field of synthetic biology for over 10 years working in academia, government, startups and industry. In this talk, he will review the history of the field starting from an academic outreach pursuit to what is now a fledgling industry. He will contend that the latest wave of investment in the field is a positive sign and that the industry is now at an inflection. He will drive home that the fruits from academia coupled with new VC money create the perfect storm for this disruptive technology to unseat incumbents. Specifically, in markets ranging from pharma, biomaterials, chemicals, fuel and food which will allow for the replacing of fossil fuels with more sustainable feedstocks and seeing widespread adoption along the way.