How artificial life spawned a billion-dollar industry

EvoNext Holdings SA

06/04/2017 11:00

* Investors like synthetic biology's market potential 
    * Tech pioneers backing new wave of start-ups 
    * Ethical and safety concerns remain 
 
    By Ben Hirschler 
    LONDON, April 6 (Reuters) - 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  FB.O , Uber  UBER.UL  and Zynga 
 ZNGA.O , 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  YHOO.O , 
Netscape, PayPal and Google respectively. 
     
    UNCERTAINTIES REMAIN 
    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.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N1GM36P 
    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  XON.N  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. For a graphic see http://tmsnrt.rs/2n3VYuO 
  
    A range of companies are springing up, from those producing 
new chemicals for industry to providers of DNA synthesis and 
related software, like U.S.-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  ROBF.PA  and 
Switzerland's Evolva  EVE.S  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." 
 
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GRAPHIC: Betting on synthetic life    http://tmsnrt.rs/2n3VYuO 
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 (Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Giles Elgood) 
 ((ben.hirschler@thomsonreuters.com; +44 20 7542 5082; Reuters 
Messaging: ben.hirschler.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: SCIENCE LIFE/SYNTHETIC INVESTMENT (GRAPHIC, TV, PI