2021, the field of synthetic biology has ushered in a harvest period one after another.
synthetic biology unicorn Zymergen (NASDAQ: ZY) successfully landed on Nasdaq with a market value of over US$4.5 billion. Another star company, Ginkgo Bioworks (hereinafter referred to as "Ginkgo"), officially announced that it will be listed through a SPAC merger, with a transaction amount of US$17.5 billion.
The manufacturing capacity of complex organisms has expanded the boundaries of biological applications and leveraged huge economic value. According to data from "CB Insight China", synthetic biology has broad application prospects and its market potential is as high as trillion US dollars. Markets and investors are increasingly turning their attention to the field of synthetic biology, with giants rushing to make arrangements, and startups have emerged one after another.
(Source: CB Insights China)
Why do capital and industry particularly favor synthetic biology? What are the advantages of products produced based on synthetic biology technology?
1. Environmentally friendly and sustainable
21 The century is an era where "life scripts" (DNA) can be used and manipulated to make materials. For example, biotechnology companies use biological raw materials such as corn, sugar cane and even wheat to produce fuels, chemicals, etc.
The most well-known of which is the production of ethanol by transforming biological raw materials. Ethanol is now widely used as automobile fuel. However, the process of manufacturing ethanol or biodiesel in the industry is not complicated, and only fermenting creatures such as corn with yeast does not involve synthetic biological techniques.
What is really worth paying attention to is the cutting-edge next-generation products, such as inexhaustible aviation jet fuel, or renewable diesel. However, fuel is just a part of it, and what is even more surprising is the use of synthetic biology to develop specialty chemicals, which are an important part of plastics, fragrances, aromatics and cosmetics, and are worth 5 to 10 times the unit value of fuel. Nevertheless, these ingredients are only a small part of the huge potential of synthetic biology.
The "bioindustry" solution based on synthetic biology is more environmentally friendly and sustainable than traditional industrial methods. Petroleum is the most common raw material for fuels and chemicals, while renewable bio-based fuels and chemicals have a lower carbon footprint.
Carbon footprint refers to the collection of greenhouse gas emissions caused by enterprises, activities, products or individuals through transportation, food production and consumption, and various production processes.
For example, for environmental protection, the government advocates reducing the use of plastic bags and increasing subsidies for renewable chemical raw materials. At this time, people can use synthetic biology technology to produce renewable environmentally friendly raw materials to make shopping bags to replace plastic bags.
Figure ︱Plant microorganisms designed by Ginkgo and Bayer Leaps (Source: Ginkgo biowork)
2. Higher product performance
Bio-based raw materials based on synthetic biotechnology can make the product have higher performance, better use efficiency, and lower price.
The raw materials of certain products are not based on oil and natural gas, but require special materials. Therefore, the cost-effectiveness and environmental protection effects of these products are often not so satisfactory. Because producers often destroy large amounts of Brazilian rainforests in order to find suitable raw materials (wood); or to produce natural emollients with squalane, resulting in the death of 500,000 sharks each year.
Synthetic biology can help simplify the production process of these special products, reduce unnecessary production steps, and make the manufacturing industry more unified with standardized production. At the same time, it can improve product performance and reduce cost structure accordingly, which also has significant effects on environmental and ecological protection.
Today, the ancient pattern of generating DNA sequences by replicating existing sequences has been subverted by the development of gene editing, big data and repositioning. Synthetic biology is exponentially accelerating gene evolution and transformation.
Unlike the past ten thousand years of agricultural civilization, people can more effectively reprogram life through synthetic biology, produce useful new products, and take new production forms and actions in beneficial ways.
Figure ︱Representative company for the application layer of synthetic biology (Source: CB Insights China)
In short, unlike the "one-time trading" of fossil fuel mining, synthetic biology provides a virtuous cycle model. Industrial producers and investors understand that engaging in or investing in synthetic biology means taking a sustainable path through synthetic biology technologies – researching more effective energy sources, reducing waste emissions and environmental pollution, protecting the environment and maintaining an ecological balance.
If synthetic biology is compared to a magnificent tall building, then this tall building can Paul live in everything, involving every aspect of daily life, chemical industry, oils, cell meat, leather, microbiome, oncology, skin diseases, infectious diseases, medical consumables, enzyme engineering transformation... and so on.
It can be said that synthetic biology has broad application prospects in the fields of medicine, chemicals, food, materials, biofuels, environment, etc. Given the diversity of the terminal market, it can be improved through synthetic biology, and all these participants have a place and room for development in "Qionglou Yuyu".
No matter what the specific development path of synthetic biology, it can be foreseen that the development of synthetic biology products will definitely play an important role in solving major problems of population and health, resources and environment, energy and materials.
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