More companies will turn to synthetic biology for innovation

Biology is already changing the way we live, eat, manufacture, and treat human health. In the next few years, synthetic biology--a $40 billion industry--will be the premier technology of the 21st century that will be used to solve real-world problems facing millions. We will see more collaboration between science, technology, and engineering communities, along with more involvement by the next generation of local leaders solving local problems all around the world, in a safe, ethical, and responsible manner.

Chances are you use at least one product every day that can be, or is, made using synthetic biology.  In fact, you probably used one of these products this morning. For example, in shampoos, the renewable chemical that makes the thick gel turn to soapy foam, known as a surfactant, can be made using synthetic biology. The biotechnology company Manus Bio has also been able to reduce its footprint on the environment through synthetic biology. The company engineered a bacterium that produces a coveted compound found within the stevia plant that can be used in zero-calorie sweeteners.

Conventional methods extract only a fraction of the sweet-tasting compound from the plant, and they often use caustic chemicals. By using synthetic biology to engineer a bacterium that mimicked the plant’s process for making the compound, however, the company was able to synthetically produce the compound with 95 percent purity. Manus Bio plans to start commercially manufacturing the product and selling to industrial partners in 2018.