The industrialization of biology has brought shorter development times, lower costs and broader possibilities. From AI in organism design and process automation to custom-made DNA and precision genetic tools, the new building blocks of synthetic biology are enabling the jump from the lab bench to factories, high-throughput development and mass production.
Rather than adding more tools to the toolbox, these new platforms are redefining what it means to build with biology. With less time and cost-intensive developments, it is certain that innovation is spreading faster. As a community we must make sure we are crafting the right building blocks to fix and improve our world – not only to overcome our current technical hurdles, but to continue shaping the way biology interacts with new disciplines to positively impact our lives.
Key Issues & Questions
AI, Deep Learning and Biological Automation
- How is AI and deep learning being applied to the design and production of biological systems?
- What are the latest trends in biological automation?
Low Cost Hardware as the Tools of Change
- How is getting low cost hardware into the hands of the innovators disrupting the industry?
- How can low cost hardware contribute to the decentralization of innovation in biology?
- Is the demand for low-cost hardware creating new markets for existing industry?
CRISPR and Next Generation Gene Editing
- How has CRISPR changed in the last 12 months and what’s in the pipeline for the future?
- What does CRISPR 2.0 look like?
Go Big or Go Home (Scaling Up the Biofab)
- How can startups avoid the pitfalls of poor scale up?
- Does scale remain a bottleneck for the synthetic biology industry?
Measuring What Matters
- What measurements are critical for the synthetic biology industry?
- What precision tools do we lack in order to get to the next stage?
- The data deluge: How are we turning data into knowledge?
Organism Engineering Platforms
- What new organism engineering platforms will appear on the scene?
- How fast are we able to expand our knowledge in model organisms and apply this to the engineering of novel chassis?
The Future of DNA Synthesis
- What does the market for DNA synthesis look like over the next 10 years?
- How can we enable decentralized DNA synthesis, or alternatively overcome operational hurdles to make custom DNA affordable for research and innovation worldwide?