BIO-ERA Announces New Multi-Client Study on the Economic Impacts of Advancing Biotechnologies
New Research Effort to Examine the Potential Economic Impacts of Rapid Advances in our Ability to Manipulate Genetic Code
Cambridge, MA (PRWEB) March 3, 2005 -- Bio Economic Research Associates, or bio-era (www.bio-era.net), a leading independent research and advisory firm providing analysis on the future of the global bio economy, today announced the launch of a multi-client study entitled Genome Synthesis and Design Futures: How Will Biotechnology Advances Affect Our Future Economy?"
The multi-client effort will concentrate on the economic implications of rapid advances in fundamental enabling biotechnologies, including genetic sequencing and synthesis technologies, new approaches to manipulating and designing genomes, such as the emerging field of Synthetic" biology, and new paradigms for managing and licensing intellectual property in biotechnology, such as PIPRA, open-source" and community-source" source approaches. The goal of the study is to:
- increase understanding of the major economic impacts of advances in enabling biotechnologies
- identify in advance key implications for business and industry, financial markets, governments, and investors
- generate new insights, recommendations, and public/private alliances to capitalize on these advances within the global business community
Under the leadership and direction of bio-era Managing Director, James Newcomb, the study will deliver highly plausible scenarios for the evolution of advances in enabling biotechnologies, how selected industries and economies may be impacted, and the implications for the future.
Who should participate?
Participants are expected to include major companies, investors, business planning analysts, and government officials with significant interest in rapidly evolving biotechnologies.
The Rapid Advance of Enabling Biotechnologies: Background
There is an explosion of new life-sciences applications underway, with potentially dramatic economic and societal benefits, implications and consequences. It is now plausible that within the next ten to twenty years, an individual may be able to specify the genome of a complex organism, communicate the genome sequence to a distant laboratory via the internet, and have the coded organism created and delivered in the mail within a matter of days or weeks. Mail order genes are already a reality in the marketplace, and mail order genomes may not be far behind.
This vision of an explosion of mail order" life forms critically depends on continued rapid advances in a host of enabling biotechnologies. The good news is that by some measures, technology development in these areas has been proceeding at exponential rates.
Moreover, while genome engineering will build upon the well-established knowledge and production base of the chemical industry, it could eventually subsume that industry: biological "mass production" could be fundamentally less expensive and more efficient than existing practices.
Specific Technological Changes That Will Enable Large Scale Synthesis
While genetic modification has thus far utilized relatively imprecise means for inserting genes into both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, emerging technologies will enable rapid, precise, and comprehensive genome engineering. Techniques for synthesizing genomes will range from assembly of chemically synthesized oligos into larger pieces (see Venter et al, PNAS, December 23, 2003, 100(26)) and assembly of plasmids and artificial chromosomes from preexisting characterized parts (see http://biobricks.mit.edu/). Craig Venter has demonstrated assembly of functional viral genomes (~5kB) from small, commercially synthesized oligos, in a method that can easily be extended for much longer sequences. The Synthetic Biology group at MIT has also been busy compiling a set of well-characterized, interoperable genetic elements with snap together" ends. The majority of these parts are drawn from well-studied organisms, that is, they have been captured from the wild" and tamed in the lab. Plans are afoot to supplement the natural parts with a variety of synthetic parts produced by academic labs around the country. These parts are all described in an online data book, are composable using open source design tools, and will be distributed via an open source license. At the Center for the Application of Molecular Biology to International Agriculture (CAMBIA) in Canberra (http://www.cambia.org), Richard Jefferson is planning to distribute a toolkit of genes for manipulating many kinds of plants. As with the Biobricks project, these genes can be used to assemble larger functional circuits. But the most important part of CAMBIAs contribution is that it will be outside the IP restrictions inherent in technology developed by Monsanto and other agricultural biotech companies. CAMBIAs mission states: We envision a situation in which the broadest community of researchers and farmers are empowered with dramatic new technologies to become innovators in developing their own solutions to the challenges they face - solutions for which they feel ownership." This opens the door to widespread genetic modification of plants to produce a wide variety of compounds, as determined by the interest of empowered individuals and small groups.
Whether from the ground up or using snap together parts, whether proprietary or open source, genome synthesis will completely alter the economics of innovative biological design. Labor costs are decreasing rapidly while productivity is rising. New technologies will enable broad-based genetic design, and eventually, the fabrication of materials and structures locally at low cost. This could be the beginning of what has been called distributed biological manufacturing" -- a new paradigm of materials production which should eventually be both less expensive and more efficient than traditional manufacturing processes in many industries.
Learning What to Watch
This project is designed to help stakeholders address the following questions:
- What are the key enabling biotechnologies, and how rapidly are they advancing?
- How might on-going advances in these technologies affect existing industries and business practices?
- What should the business community be watching with respect to the emergence of disruptive new biological technologies, like distributed biological manufacturing"? When will they become significant"?
- How are advances in enabling biotechnologies likely to be treated by various stakeholders, including existing IP holders, government regulators, and investors?
By using scenarios to describe the possible trajectories for the advance of key enabling technologies, this multi-client study project is intended to help better prepare participating organizations in developing their own planning, investment, and response strategies.
To enroll in the study, or for more information, please visit http://www.bio-era.net/research/add_research_17.html or contact Stephen C. Aldrich 617 876-2400.
# # #
|
