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some real-world problems and have a positive effect on people ’ s lives .”
Those solutions could include artificial cells that circulate in the bloodstream for extended periods of time , delivering precise doses of anticancer drugs .
“ You can achieve a function that could help you solve some real-world problems and have a positive effect on people ’ s lives .” — Elizabeth Strychalski ,
group leader , NIST
The next boom The market for synthetic biology is forecast to reach $ 30.7 billion by 2026 , according to research firm MarketsandMarkets . It could transform medicine , agriculture and even information technology , says Mark Bünger , principal at Futurity Systems , a technical innovation consultancy .
Enhancing genetics already contributes to close to half of the world ’ s annual increase in crop productivity , and emerging synthetic biology (“ synbio ”) technologies are expected to more than double that .
Plant cells engineered to be biosensors could signal growers that a crop had been exposed to heavy metals or radiation . Mining companies could replace the use of toxic chemicals for refining ore with microorganisms that extract valuable minerals like gold without degrading the environment . Bünger says the first wave of synbio companies are now 5 to 10 years old , while a new flush of companies has been created in the last year . He compares the current state of the industry to the infotech economy in the late 1990s when it transitioned to the internet .
Just as the development of PCs and server infrastructure paved the way for the dot-com explosion , in the first wave of synthetic biology , companies discovered how to accomplish basic tasks like synthesizing genes and analyzing biological samples .
“ This new wave of companies is commercializing a lot faster and building on the gains of that previous wave . Now , people don ’ t need to think of the tooling ; they can go straight to an application ,” he says .
Moderna ’ s innovative COVID-19 vaccine was another accelerator , according to Bünger : “ Until the pandemic hit , what they were doing was viewed as an outlier by the rest of the pharmaceutical industry . It was a little too exotic for investors , practitioners and regulators . [ Then ], interest exploded .”
A force for innovation One concern about biohybrids is that they blur the line between living beings and machines , for example , in the case of a biocomputer composed of human nerve cells , according to Thomas Douglas and Julian Savulescu of Oxford University , the authors of “ Synthetic biology and the ethics of knowledge ” ( Journal of Medical Ethics , 2010 ). Another concern is whether a synthetic organism might evolve in unforeseen and potentially harmful ways if released into the wild .
The U . S . government has a policy in place called the Coordinated Framework for Regulation of Biotechnology to oversee the introduction of synthetic biology products into the market . And scientists in the field are intent on making sure their work produces social benefit .
“ As we think about these more science fiction-y type possibilities , it ’ s important to always ground those in consideration of ethical , legal , social concerns — how we address those issues before the experience ,” Strychalski says .
Still , there ’ s much potential for good . Synthetic biology can create a world where bacteria turn carbon emissions into products , plants thrive without fertilizer and even the most broken things in the human body can be fixed . ■
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