Synthetic biology technologies are finally maturing, becoming the way almost anything can be manufactured competitively and sustainably. Businesses must learn to use syn-bio to develop new products and processes, improve existing ones, and reduce costs to remain competitive in the future.
It may be a phenomenon without a commonly accepted appellation, but synthetic biology—or syn-bio, as we call it—has become a disruptive force that is birthing the Bio Economy. Biology is usually defined as the study of living things and life itself, but syn-bio has turned the science into the manufacturing paradigm of the future. Microorganisms can, in theory, make many of the things that industrial processes currently manufacture, so syn-bio—the design and engineering of biological systems to create and improve processes and products—offers new ways of producing almost everything that human beings consume, from flavors and fabrics to foods and fuels.
Supply might no longer be constrained by the availability of raw materials. Companies can engineer and manufacture an infinite quantity of things, cell by cell, from scratch. Half a gram of cattle muscle could create as much as 4.4 billion pounds of beef—more than Mexico consumes in a year. Already, syn-bio has spawned an industry of science-based start-ups that are trying to alter conventional products and processes, transforming the material world as we know it.
Just as arranging zeroes and ones enabled all types of information to be communicated digitally, changing the genetic code—A, T, C, and G, which stand for adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine, the four nucleotides that form DNA—alters biological systems. New genome-editing technologies, such as CRISPR-Cas9, are helping the creation of novel DNA combinations, reducing the costs of editing DNA, and increasing the length of DNA strands that can be replicated without error. The viability of cell-free biology has improved, allowing companies to use metabolic cell processes that don’t need live cells and make testing faster by using biosensors. Like data and cloud computing, DNA and DNA editing are fueling the creation of a new production frontier.
By the end of the decade, syn-bio could be used extensively in manufacturing industries that account for more than a third of global output—a shade under $30 trillion in terms of value—according to a new BHI study. To be sure, because of real-time data collection, automation, and AI, some industries are closer to feeling the impact than others. According to our projections, incumbents in sectors such as health and beauty, medical devices, and electronics will be challenged by syn-bio rivals—as the pharmaceutical and food industries already have been—in the next five years. Other industries, such as chemicals, textiles, fashion, and water, which many start-ups are already targeting, will face cost-based competition from syn-bio alternatives in the medium run, followed in the long term by sectors such as mining, electricity, and even construction.
Syn-bio’s frontiers will continue to expand as the world’s knowledge of biology rises, the cost of DNA writing and editing falls, and synthesizing tools become even easier to use. New products and processes will be created that sound like the stuff of science fiction but are ripe to go mainstream. Moreover, the syn-bio start-ups are engineering more sustainable products that consume fewer resources, such as land and water, and don’t use fossil fuels and their derivatives. These products are also more durable, generate less waste after use, and are healthier for humans in most cases.
CEOs the world over must come to grips with this fascinating technology right away, especially since business and science have tended to operate in separate spheres until now. If companies hope to survive, they must learn to use syn-bio to gain a competitive advantage that is, in every sense of the term, sustainable.
Just as synthesis changed chemistry and chip design altered computing in the last century, biologists have built on advances in molecular, cell, and systems biology to transform the science from an analytical to an engineering discipline. While hardware engineers design new integrated circuits and microprocessors based on materials’ physical properties, biologists can build syn-bio systems that will help companies change products, processes, or both. Thus, the syn-bio pioneers are using the science to attain five different objectives:
1. Create innovative products and novel processes. Many syn-bio start-ups have designed all-new products that require fewer natural resources to make than those they replace. The challengers can sell them at premium prices because the products are more sustainable and are customized to each application or user.
Consider, for example, the synthetic meat industry, where more than 70 start-ups with idealistic names—such as Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat, Innocent Meat, New Age Meats, Change Foods, Eat Just, Good Chicken, and Upside Foods—are growing like wildfire.
Upside Foods was founded seven years ago in Berkeley, CA, by cardiologist Uma Valeti, oncologist Nicholas Genovese and Will Clem, who has a doctorate in biomedical engineering, to create syn-bio meats at scale. The start-up takes stem cells from several breeds of chicken and eggs, feeds them nutrients such as amino acids, carbohydrates, minerals, fats, and vitamins, and speeds the growth of the feasting cells using a bioreactor. This not only mitigates the environmental impact of raising animals for human consumption, but also limits the risk of contamination because of the sterile conditions in which the proteins are manufactured. Upside Foods has grown chicken, beef, and duck in its bioreactors, and like Eat Just, which launched cell-culture chicken in Singapore’s restaurants last year, it plans to sell lab-grown chicken meat all over the US in the near future.
Syn-bio’s innovations extend to processes as well. Boston-based syn-bio company Ginkgo Bioworks uses genetic engineering to produce bacteria that can be used in industrial processes. Ginkgo is reprogramming the science to disrupt a range of industries and has created a conglomerate business model that it calls “Berkshire (Hathaway) for biotech.”
Five years ago, Ginkgo Bioworks set up a joint venture with Bayer, the German manufacturer of pharmaceuticals, healthcare products, agricultural chemicals, and seeds. Called Joyn Bio, the new venture synthesizes microbes that will allow crops such as corn, wheat, and rice to use fertilizers more efficiently, thus reducing the quantity needed. Plants require nitrogen for growth and photosynthesis, but they can’t access it directly from the air. They must rely on the soil as well as bacteria and archaea on their roots, which convert molecular nitrogen from the air to ammonia.
However, many cereal crops can’t access enough bacteria, so farmers must use nitrogenous fertilizers to ensure that plants grow. Joyn Bio is hoping to change that by engineering microbial products that, when introduced to the soil, will help corn, wheat, and rice plants convert nitrogen into forms they can use. And as a bonus, the microbes will also protect plants from pests and diseases.
2. Improve the performance of existing products or processes. Many syn-bio firms are redesigning traditional processes, developing new ways of manufacturing familiar things that are more environmentally sustainable than existing ones, which tend to rely on petrochemicals, their derivatives, or other ecologically hazardous chemicals. Cell-based processes also often boost output, since scientists can engineer those strains of microorganisms that will deliver the maximum yields.