Genomics and Synthetic Biology

Synthetic biology is going to be a sizable disruption (nondisruptive creation).

Source: Kim, W.C. and Mauborgne, R. (2017 :37). (Blue Ocean Shift).

Disruptive creation is simply adding another "me-too" product with added value propositions (isolating mechanisms) in an already saturated marketplace in the product/venture life cycle. It simply disrupts the current business arena. A nondisruptive creation is similar to Pampers disposable nappies that put Stork Nappies and other cloth nappies manufacturers out of business very quickly. Despite inventing the “first digital camera in 1975,” Kodak apparently refused to take advantage of its market leading position to pivot to digital thanks to a combination of arrogance and “blind faith” that marketing power could persuade its customers to ignore digital photography. We all know the story. Big corporations are slow. Their old age and out of touch management only survive because inertia and economies of scale allow them to. They’re one "disruptive technology" away from being overthrown, not only because of their size, but because of their complacency. That is where start-ups (unicorns) have entrepreneurs who bring unique products and services to the market. (Depending largely on resources, such as seed capital and technology - digital business transformation).

Synthetic biology is built around the idea that DNA is essentially software - nothing more than a four-letter code arranged in a specific order. With genetic engineering we have been inserting a gene or two from this organism into that organism - such as taking the DNA that makes jellyfish glow and, as South Korean researchers did back in 2007, inserting it into cats to make glow-in-the-dark cats. (Think of designer babies - A designer baby is a baby genetically engineered in vitro for specially selected traits, which can vary from lowered disease-risk to gender selection, eye colour, hair colour, twins and so on). Before the advent of genetic engineering and in vitro fertilization (IVF), designer babies were primarily a science fiction concept. When Chinese researchers first edited the genes of a human embryo in a lab dish in 2015, it sparked global outcry and pleas from scientists not to make a baby using the technology, at least for the present. Enough!

Synthetic biology is not just individual letters being swapped out - it is whole genomes. CRISPR is a technology that can be used to edit genes and, as such, will likely change the world. The essence of CRISPR is simple: it's a way of finding a specific bit of DNA inside a cell. After that, the next step in CRISPR gene editing is usually to alter that piece of DNA. CRISPR stands for "Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats".

Synthetic biology is essentially genetic engineering gone digital. Today we manipulate DNA with computers, using programmes that function much like word processors. Mix and match genetic code, spell and error check, shuffle bits around - it is becoming drag-and-drop easy. This increase in simplicity and accessibility has opened the door to a wonderland of possibilities (in my opinion, not all good). Everything we now manufacture industrially, we will eventually be able to assemble biologically. Take your typical day. After you get out of bed in the morning, what is the first thing you do? Perhaps brush your teeth? Right now your toothpaste is mostly chalk and flavoring, but with synthetic biology, it can be specifically designed to fight your breed of bad breath microbes. However, it can now have tooth-polishing nanoparticles designed to continue cleaning long after you have finished brushing. (Will this affect dental floss sales?). These nanoparticles can be designed to detect infection or cancer or diabetes, turning different colours in the presence of each, or release custom-designed probiotics that balance your microbiome.

To many, synthetic biology still sounds like science fiction, but what is transforming it into scientific fact is the same force driving all the other exponential technologies - Moore's law. (Advancements in digital electronics, such as the reduction in quality-adjusted microprocessor prices, the increase in memory capacity (RAM and flash), the improvement of sensors, and even the number and size of pixels in digital cameras, are strongly linked to Moore's law). The outcome of Moore's Law was that performance would double every 24 months or about 40% annually. CPU performance improvements have now slowed to roughly 30% annually, so technically speaking, Moore's Law is dead.

Anyway, because DNA is nothing more that a four-letter code, when genetics went digital, it was transformed into an information science and thus hopped on the exponential expressway. Biotechnology is not just accelerating at the speed of Moore's law, it is accelerating at five times the speed of Moore's law - in fact doubling in power and halving in price every four months! So it appears that bioengineering is no longer an exclusive field limited to those with PhDs in large government and University labs, it is starting to become an entrepreneurial playground.

For those of us not inclined toward the science, dozens of contract research and manufacturing services (CRAMS - Contract Research and Manufacturing Services) are willing and able to do the heavy lifting for a fee. A set of user-friendly interfaces have already been developed. For example, Carlos Olguin is working on Project Cyborg, a synthetic biology interface that allows high school students, entrepreneurs, and "citizen scientists" to program DNA. Now because this software resides in the cloud, not only can anyone use it to run experiments, anyone can sell the results on Autodesk's Project Cyborg marketplace, meaning synthetic biology is about to gain access to that fantastic accelerator or entrepreneurial possibility: it's first app store. So there you go start-ups - how about it? However, remembering that climbing Mount Bold is not just technologically challenging, it is also psychologically difficult to navigate. Remember that without the right "mindset", entrepreneurs and indeed intrapreneurs have absolutely no chance of success. Attitude is the ball game. Perhaps you need an attitude "upgrade" - a series for going big and bold, scaling and being agile. So remember that companies that articulate these innovation accelerators are always about business as unusual. They are created to tackle the Herculean, purposefully built around what psychologists call "high, hard goals". Big goals work best when there is an alignment between an individual's values and the desired outcome of the goal. So enter agile design, an ideology that emphasizes fast feedback loops (the evaluation stage of the implementation stage of the basic strategic model). Formulation - Implementation - Evaluation.

In closing, companies now release a "minimum viable product", then get feedback from customers, incorporate that feedback into the next iteration, release a slightly upgraded version (value add propositions used in competitive scenarios/competition and not comparative competition - price wars), and repeat. A minimum viable product is a version of a product with just enough features to be usable by early customers who can then provide feedback for future product development. A focus on releasing an MVP means that developers potentially avoid lengthy and unnecessary work. So instead of design cycles that last years, the agile process takes weeks and produces results directly in line with consumer expectations. This is rapid iteration. We saw this with Gmail. (Although my disciplines are Business Management, Economics and Human Behaviour - Genomics and Synthetic Biology has been a pet project of mine). Remember the change train - you can stand in front of it; stand on the station or get on the change train. Either way, it is going to leave the station. So get with it and Digital Business Transformation, or stay behind and go into the decline stage of the Product Life Cycle (PLC) or Venture Life Cycle (VLC).

IPO - Initial Public Offering (in last stage).

Prof Rory Dunn.