Beyond existent biology

Synthetic biology has found its place among many emerging disciplines, often famed for its infinite possibilities beyond the realm of existent biology. Although its applications have transformed many industries altogether (sustainability, agriculture, pharmacy), a particular focus will be managed in light of the impacts of synthetic biology on healthcare.

Table of contents:

• Overview of Synthetic Biology
• Current Advancements
• Breakthrough Timeline
• Sample Company
• My Thoughts

Overview of Synthetic Biology

Synthetic biology is the redesigning or fabrication of fundamental biological systems in pursuit of novel innovations that don’t exist on their own. In order to innovate, synthetic biologists must synthesize DNA and catalog combinations of DNA sequences to produce an entirely new genome or genetic information in a given organism.

Some of the baseline goals of synthetic biology:

1. Standardizing biological parts — cataloging standardized genomic parts to use and synthesize in novel biological systems
2. Applying protein design — taking existing biological components and redesigning proteins to enlist new processes
3. Synthesizing natural products — engineering microbes to produce typical enzymes and perform necessary functions to produce natural products
4. Synthesizing genomics — designing a genome for a natural bacterium

There are two recognized themes within synthetic biology:

• Bottom-up approaches
• Top-down approaches

Bottom-down approaches strive to create entirely artificial life while top-down approaches leverage known biology to design systems that relay a specific purpose. The latter has the added advantage of using what exists in the host cell, or chassis, when introducing synthetic counterparts.

Current Advancements

Among the divisions of medicine, synthetic biology has deferred its impact beyond one specialty. Its potential has been realized and will possibly be employed in the near future with some of the following examples portraying its prominent features:

1. Re-engineering the human embryonic kidney cells: human embryonic kidney cells mimic the function of the pancreas’ beta cells, which have little to no function in patients with diabetes due to their immune system destroying the cells. This development of human embryonic kidney cells has not yet been deployed on the macro scale but will be a breakthrough for diabetic patients in the near future.
2. Vaccines and cancer: traditional vaccines are derived from hen eggs and can take up to six months to develop to suffice an entire population. Dr. Lisa Caproni from Torchlight Genetics in London has concluded that synthetic biology can be used to curate personal medicine for vaccines and cancer. For instance, Dr. Caproni said that by looking at someone’s profile, she’s able to decipher how the patient’s normal tissue is behaving and what mutations are causing cancer, and thus, can predict how the patient will respond to the treatment prescribed.
3. Oncology: cancer therapies are currently being developed in laboratories that hold the potential to switch engineered immune cells on and off, in addition to the development of synthetic receptors which can someday detect cancer cells.
4. Gastroenterology: scientists are programming the DNA of a food bacteria, Lactococcus Lactis. This engineering is being done to make an anti-inflammatory agent help arrest ulcers and Crohn’s disease.

The applications extend to microbiomes, genetic diseases, medical devices, and far more.

Breakthrough Timeline

The following timeline offers insight into how synthetic biology emerged.

1970s and 1980s: the concept of genetic engineering for environmental purposes, such as bioremediation, emerged. The first biotech patent was for a microorganism responsible for cleaning oil spills.

2003: scientists from the J. Craig Venter Institute built a fully synthetic PhiX174 chromosome in 14 days and had their results published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

2004: George M. Church and Xiaolian Bio announced that they’d reduced the cost of DNA synthesis to 20,000 base pairs per dollar through their invention of a new “multiplex” DNA synthesis technique.

2006: Dr. Jay Keasling re-engineered yeast containing bacterial and wormwood genes into a chemical factory to produce a precursor to artemisinin as an inexpensive anti-malarial drug.

2007: the J. Craig Venter Institute developed genome transplantation to make one type of bacteria into another through the transplanted chromosome, they published their results in the journal Science.

2008: the J. Craig Venter Institute made the largest man-made DNA structure, the first synthetic bacterial genome (Mycoplasma genitalium JCVI-1.0).

2010: the J. Craig Venter Institute made the first synthetic life form based on an existent bacterium found in goats, made with three chemicals. The organism has watermarks written in its DNA to identify it as synthetic.

2011: Functional synthetic chromosome arms are engineered in yeast.

2012: Charpentier and Doudna labs program CRISPR-Cas9 bacterial immunity targeting DNA cleavage, creating a technology that expands and simplifies eukaryotic gene editing.

2019: The first bacterial genome named C. ethensis-2.0 is programmed entirely by a computer, although it isn’t viable.

2019: Researchers report the production of viable life, a variant of the bacteria Escherichia coli.

Sample Company

Precigen is a biopharmaceutical company focused on gene and cell therapy targeted through precision technology to detect intractable diseases in immuno-oncology, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases.

In their clinical pipeline, Precigen has seven products as of October 26 with all of their products at or past phase 2. Of these products, type 1 diabetes; ovarian cancer; AML, MDS; hematological & solid tumors; heart failure; HPV+ solid tumors; and Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis (RRP) are being addressed.

Founded in 1998 in Washington DC, Precigen‘s funding amounts to $525.8M — they’ve had seven acquisitions and one exit thus far.

As a leader in the industry, a number of fingers point to Precigen in the delivery of robust products.

My Thoughts

Fascinated by the many intersections of synthetic biology, I am confident that synthetic biology will have a bright future and transform whichever industry it enters. As an industry itself, synthetic biology is vast and an essential step towards new beginnings.

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