Expanding Toolbox Spurring Opportunities

Synthetic biology encompasses myriad technologies combining life sciences, engineering, and chemistry to improve, optimise, or enable the de novo design of artificial cells, organisms and cellular pathways.

It can be integrated into a multitude of industry segments, support process improvement, and drive the development of new products and processes. Rapid strides in high-throughput, high-fidelity, low-cost DNA and oligo synthesis, DNA printing, genome editing tools, and engineered gene circuits, coupled with advances in digitisation, automation and artificial intelligence (AI), are propelling the SynBio applications.

They have the potential to disrupt the industrial ecosystem in healthcare (drug discovery, diagnostics), energy & environment (bioremediation, clean energy), industrial biomanufacturing (chemicals, flavours, fragrances, biomaterials), and agritech and foodtech (livestock feed, cultured proteins) to name a few. The synthetic biology toolbox has transformed the way the healthcare and life sciences industry functions and has become a ubiquitous tool for basic life sciences research, drug discovery, diagnostics, programmable therapeutics, etc. Within healthcare, next-generation biomanufacturing and advanced therapies can be impacted greatly with seamless integration.

Synthetic biology tools have been around for decades, but it is only in the past few years that they have been actively deployed, bolstering an era of sustainability and enabling the creation of a bioinspired economy. While the US and UK were the initial hubs of R&D and investments for synthetic biology and have well-developed SynBio networks, it has gained momentum in Asia, which expects to witness a surge of R&D activities, partnerships, and product development in the near term (2023-2025).

Growing Ecosystem