Biology is accelerating exponentially, even outpacing Moore’s law. This is generating, still largely hidden, seismic sized waves that will impact our lives before we know it.
We have selected some key trends that we have noticed through ourstartup acceleratorsthat we think have legs in 2018.
Trend 1: Real Time Genetics
In November 2016, there was. an air of anticipation amongst a team of Chinese researchers and doctors at West China Hospital in Chengdu as they prepared to inject an unnamed patient with a CRISPR-CAS9 gene editing complex from Streptococcus pyogenes as part of a clinical trial to attempt to treat that patient’s aggressive lung cancer. Supervising Oncologist Lu You at Sichuan University said the trial “went smoothly,”
Roll forward a year, and biohacker Josiah Zayner has reportedly been injecting himself with a CRISPR-CAS9 plasmid complex that contains a Myostatin Knock-Out. Why would he do that? Well, publicity for the cause of live human gene editing. There is a slim to none chance that he might become ripped just like one of these dogs which were dosed with a Myostatin inhibiting drug.
While this puppy looks pretty scary, the fact is that more lean muscle mass is pretty heavily correlated with longevity, and in a human that could be pretty desirable. Although the efficiency of Josiah’s experiments on himself remain to be seen, the reality is that with home based cheap tools Josiah is completely able to do this work on himself right now and he is inspiring others to try the same.
There can be no doubt that biotechnology has democratized to the point where literally anyone can have a go at it. Of course there are clearly risks and an extreme learning curve involved. Just as clearly there are people willing and able already to do complex genetic experiments on themselves, and this leads us to the conclusion that this kind of thing is here to stay.
Shortly after Josiah’s self modification attempt went public, a 44 year old patient named Brian Madeux, who has Hunter syndrome, received a treatment aimed at editing the genome of his liver cells. His blood was infused with another CRISPR construct that targeted a mutation in his cells that stops them producing a key enzyme that breaks down certain sugars. CRISPR was used to insert a replacement copy of the gene to modify his liver cells into a factory for making the enzyme he is missing.
What all this adds up to is a potential explosion of trials both inside and outside of medicine of genetic modification of living humans in real time, and it won’t just be to cure diseases as we can see. Want blue eyes and blond hair? The potential for this technology to alter the cosmetic images of people does not stop at more muscles, and on the serious side, it is a certainty people with currently untreatable illnesses and a level of expertise will be tempted to take matters into their own hands. Drug companies should also take note that if you can fix an ailment genetically in real time, then the drug for that condition is likely to stop selling.
We predict that in 2018, real time genetics is going to be a thing.
This leads on to the next mega trend…
Trend 2: Backyard Bio
To do advanced biotechnology is difficult for many reasons, and one of the biggest problems is the regulatory overhead of working with living organisms such as pathogenic bacteria. If you make an alteration to say a streptococcus and then you flush it down a toilet, you may very well be releasing a self replicating problem into the world.
While there have been so many advances in reduced cost in open source lab equipment to do biotechnology, there has been if anything a significant cost increase in conforming to new regulatory standards. This has in and of itself prevented a lot of backyard biotech from happening… until now. Cell-Free Tech have developed a low cost platform to do genetic experiments without living cells, andyou can buy it already on Kickstarter. This platform combined with lost cost equipment likeBento labsprovides literally anyone with the tools to do meaningful biotechnology engineering in their own backyard, and completely without the need for regulatory expenses, because nothing actually living is being toyed with.
There is a growing supply of components, tools, and parts to fuel a massive wave of tinkering and experimenting to develop new technologies and products that could, and likely will, change the world (and we feel likely for the better). Just as the tinkerers of the computer industry in the 70s laid the foundations for the modern information age, so too the backyard biotech pioneers are going to lead us into the biotechnology age. Another example of this is Prospective Research which literally started in a basem*nt and has developed a low cost solution, using commonly available parts and tools, to discovering new antibiotics in dirt… Yes dirt, just like you find in a backyard!
While we can now ‘life-mine’ microbes from your backyard, as mentioned above, it’s only a matter of time until we’re hacking our own bodies. In fact, it has already started.
Some Do-It-Yourself biology projects even become startups, likeNuLeaf Tech, so it’s an area brimming with potential.
Thisgenome-hacking kitenables you to edit genomes in your home. Sounds wild, right? It’s only for bacteria and yeast – so far. But its founder is one of a few scientists working on editing his own genes.
While this has already sparked debates and prompted the FDA to come crashing down on basem*nt biohackers, many hurdles remain to be overcome. However, the trend is clear. In the future, it could become cheaper and faster to hack our own genomes than to pay health care premiums.
In the future, it could become cheaper and faster to hack our own genomes than to pay health care premiums.
And there’s already a real case, with potentially many more to follow. After all, it could be a matter of life and death. Tristan Roberts is a young man with HIV. Together with biotech company Ascension Biomedical, he’s currently administering anexperimental HIV gene therapyto himself and is also keeping busy documenting the journey.
In the next decade, we will likely have access to some types of affordable genome-fixing therapies that will be covered by universal basic healthcare (perhaps like theChaosGene Boxes to fix a cellular algorithmin my sci-fi story).
The fact that these tools becoming increasingly accessible and cheaply available today changes everything. This leads up to our final megatrend kicking off in 2018 – digitizing life itself.
Trend 3: Digitizing Life
When biology becomes an information technology, solving death becomes a programming challenge. So where does this bring us, and life itself?
Human Augmentation
Technology is moving closer and closer to the body: right into the body! Big tech has made its move into health, and it’s coming to our bodies along with the data and user base that comes with it.
Brain-computer interfaces are one example. They’ve stirred up concerns about brain hacking as also wild hopes for the future to enable us to ‘compete with AI’ (according to Elon Musk) or merge with AI. His new company Neuralink is one of the movers pioneering the field. If you’re curious, have a look at these mind-boggling (pun intended)job descriptionsof how to build the computer-brains of the future.
Facebook, meanwhile, is getting closer to reading your thoughts. The social network has a large team of engineers working on its own brain-computer interface. In the coming years, the first of us willtype the first texts on Facebook with our brains.
But human augmentation goes further than our brains – to the entire operating system that is our body. Apple’s recent collaboration brings aniPhone-connected cochlear implantto the hard-of-hearing. This cyborg-tech allows users to stream sounds, calls, and music directly into their ears. The concentrated computing power we carry in our pockets can even save lives: Siri has saved lives and so did an Apple watch, by calling an ambulance to a man suffering a heart attack. With Google’s Verily working on with their glucose-measuring smart contact lense and Amazon’s move into the pharmacy supply chain, a wave of transformation is coming to our health and capabilities.
Our cells, bodies, and our biology are becoming biological machines that can be measured, maintained, and fixed with technology, maybe even building a “Google of Health”, like withProfusa’s biosensor.
Cheers to that, perhaps with avirtual reality co*cktail?
Digital Organisms
Biological beings are self-replicating cellular algorithms. Perhaps you’ve come across theart exhibition by Dewey-Hagborg, a fascinating exhibition of the ghostly faces of strangers recreated from nothing but DNA samples found in the streets. This shows the power of this genetic blueprint, as we discussed in our first trend. Perhaps you want to check if your face is among them?
So what happens if we use life’s software and technology to merge the boundaries between the two?
It gives rise to new digital life-forms, like thisbitcoin eating-plant robotoran open-source digital worm. The latter is an effort to create a digital nematode from the desktop for research purposes. Meanwhile, abiological-to-digital converteris in the works by pioneering researchers around the J.Craig Venter Institute (JCVI). We can already bio-print materials, but at some point, we will print entire organisms – and send them through space, potentially.
What about the agriculture sector? Farming, too, is becoming increasingly data-driven and automated. Some examples areconnected-cows and the internet of cows. Could digital organisms help us solve our energy needs? You decide: Thesedigitally printed cyanobacteria can generate electricityand power devices.
The Mushtari is not only an astounding piece of next-generation fashion, but it’s also asymbiosis of wearables, synthetic biology, and microfluidics. Imagine putting the power-generating bacteria and the Mushtari together: In the future, you could be wearing your own power-generating bio-factory!
Lastly, we will be able to store the world’s data in the palm of our hands with DNA data storage. StartupHelixworksis one of the pioneers. They are developing a molecular machine to convert your digital data into DNA, safe from cyberattacks, secure for long-term storage.
With the technologies available today, the question is: How digital do we want to become?
Bill Liao is General Partner atSOSVand Managing Director atRebelBio.
This article was written by Bill Liao and Elsa Sotiriadis.
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