Revolutionizing Healthcare: Exploring the Cutting-Edge of Synthetic Biology
Your Weekly Shortcut to Deeptech Investing—Exclusive Trends & Startup Reports for VCs & Angels in Just 5 Minutes
By Fran Antequera, Deeptech Expert
What is going on?
The pharmaceutical and healthcare industry has experienced exponential growth thanks to breakthroughs in science, as the elucidation of the relationship between the effectiveness of a drug in an individual and his genetic and environmental background or the progress caused by new pandemics such as Covid-19 or the latest incipient one: multidrug-resistance to antibiotics.
Increasing complexity requires the involvement of "new players”, and a great example was the use of synthetic biology, or synbio, to develop Covid-19 vaccines in record time. As you read in the last article about synbio, it consists in the construction or redesign of biological components to create desired traits. Therefore, synbio presents a vast array of treatment opportunities that have the potential to revolutionize healthcare.
What does it mean?
This means that there are some notable health opportunities in the field of synbio:
● Synthetic biology enables the engineering of biological systems to develop drugs more efficiently and with greater precision. This allows the development of personalized treatments that tailor the individual genetic uniqueness.
● Through the use of synbio techniques, vaccines can be engineered to elicit a specific immune response, enabling more effective prevention and control of infectious diseases. In fact, stopping the pandemic in record time with the Covid-19 vaccines was one of the great merits of synbio.
● Bioengineering and regenerative medicine, to replace damaged cells and tissues.
● Diagnostics and biosensors, developing synbio-based diagnostics that use specific biomarkers providing faster, more accurate, and cost-effective testing methods.
Why does it matter?
💸For markets: with synbio potential to revolutionize multiple industries, including healthcare, agriculture, energy, and manufacturing, synthetic biology presents a vast landscape for investors to explore.
Investing in the field of synbio health presents significant potential for both financial returns and positive impact on human health. When investing in synbio health, it's crucial to conduct thorough due diligence, evaluate the technology, assess the market potential, and consider the regulatory landscape. So it is really important to seek advice from financial advisors or investment professionals with expertise in the field of biotechnology and synthetic biology to make informed investment decisions.
Some areas within synbio health that offer investment opportunities:
● Companies that develop tissue engineering, biosensors, diagnostics, etc. It is especially attractive to invest in point-of-care diagnostics and portable biosensors due to their potential for widespread use. By the way, if you still do not know what a POCT is, despite the great relevance they have gained in recent years (especially after the medical saturation of the pandemic), they consist of consist of the analysis of patient specimens outside the clinical laboratory, near or at the site of patient care, usually performed by clinical staff without laboratory training1. It yields immediate acquisition of information on an individual's condition to facilitate treatment decisions or further extensive testing. Furthermore, it offers the advantages of widening accessibility to diagnosis, minimal sample volumes, reduced costs, and rapid analysis times2.
● Biotechnology companies, involved in drug development, personalized medicine or regenerative medicine, among others. In recent years, genomic medicine enterprises have also been gaining special relevance, with companies involved in genetic testing, gene editing, gene therapies and gene sequencing technologies.
● Research and Development (R&D). This can be a high-risk, high-reward opportunity due to the uncertainty surrounding the success of scientific discoveries. Despite the uncertainty, the advancement of science also requires investment in academia and early stage startups, which may even be an altruistic decision.
🧑🏿🤝🧑🏻For society: in the face of a growing and aging population, climate change, and environmental degradation, synthetic biology emerges as a powerful tool to mitigate resource competition and prevent further inequalities within the global bioeconomy.
Applications from this bio revolution could have a direct global impact of up to $4 trillion per year over the next 10-20 years, enabling production of 60% physical inputs to the global economy, and addressing 45% of the world’s current disease burden3. According to the report published by World Economic Forum on Nov 24, 20214, especially in the context of a growing and aging population, climate change and environmental degradation, synthetic biology can help reduce competition for resources and avoid widening inequalities in the global bioeconomy. One of the best examples is the use of yeast for insulin production and how it succeeded in lowering the product cost and making it more accessible to individuals with low income5.
🔮What’s next?
Investments in synbio applied to health have been steadily increasing in recent years, and the trend is expected to continue. As the field continues to show promise for revolutionizing healthcare, attracting funding and investments becomes crucial for research, development, and commercialization.
To learn more about the investment and fundraising ecosystem in synbio in general (including healthcare) we recommend reading the "SynBioBeta 2023 Investment Report" by Mark Bünger, John Cumbers (Synbiobeta Director) and Jeff Buguliskis. In fact, the largest investments made in synbio this year are in healthcare and the trend is upward. The largest investments made in synbio this year have been in the next healthcare companies:
Resilience (410 million dollars): biomanufacturing company to lead the pursuit of novel medicines.
CureVac (250 M $). Company that develop of messenger RNA-based therapies
PacBio (175 M $) and Asimov (175 M $). PacBio develops and manufactures systems for real-time gene sequencing, whereas Asimov builds tools to program living cells, integrating mammalian synbio with computer-aided design to advance therapeutic applications.
✨ That’s all for today. Thanks for reading !
💖Like, follow and subscribe to our Community ! Stay tuned for our next article coming up end of the week with our Deeptech Insights Newsletter.
Much love Deeptechers!👋
Florkowski, C., Don-Wauchope, A., Gimenez, N., Rodriguez-Capote, K., Wils, J., & Zemlin, A. (2017). Point-of-care testing (POCT) and evidence-based laboratory medicine (EBLM)–does it leverage any advantage in clinical decision making?. Critical reviews in clinical laboratory sciences, 54(7-8), 471-494. Website (DOI): https://shorturl.at/nstS7
Vashist, S. K., Luppa, P. B., Yeo, L. Y., Ozcan, A., & Luong, J. H. (2015). Emerging technologies for next-generation point-of-care testing. Trends in biotechnology, 33(11), 692-705. Website (DOI): https://shorturl.at/eoBKX
McKinsey & Company. (2020). The Bio Revolution: Innovations transforming economies, societies, and our lives. Website: https://rb.gy/vjac3
World Economic Forum. (2021). How can technological advancements in synthetic biology benefit everyone? An expert explains. Website: https://rb.gy/57875
Baeshen, N. A., Baeshen, M. N., Sheikh, A., Bora, R. S., Ahmed, M. M. M., Ramadan, H. A., ... & Redwan, E. M. (2014). Cell factories for insulin production. Microbial cell factories, 13(1), 1-9. Website (DOI): https://rb.gy/hvbya