Royal Society of Chemistry’s Post

Since the launch of CSIRO’s National Synthetic Biology Roadmap in 2021, considerable progress has been made to support research translation, create new companies, and develop shared infrastructure. Now we need sustained and nationally coordinated collaboration to accelerate commercial successes and realise the impacts of Australia’s maturing bioeconomy. Here’s how we’re working to build Australia’s #SynbioSlipstream. 👇 🚀COMPANY CREATION🚀  Main Sequence is actively seeking researchers and founders in the bioengineering sector, with particular interest in: • New ways to deal with water shortages • Using AI to design biological systems for different uses • Making chemicals without fossil fuels by using CO2 • Reducing carbon emissions in hard-to-abate industries  • Fixing and restoring environments • Synthetic biology innovations in medicine 🤝 COMMUNITY BUILDING🤝 We want to be the connective tissue that ensures operators in the ecosystem have the information and access they need to begin — or accelerate — their entrepreneurial journey. Here are some places you can start: • SynBio Office Hours: https://lnkd.in/dzg9zrzm   • Venture Science Playbook: https://lnkd.in/esz8JhNz • ON Accelerate: https://lnkd.in/eEV5Gg8N 💰FUNDING AVENUES💰 Ultimately the more private and public sector collaboration the better when it comes to industry creation. For those interested and seeking funding, our team want to connect promising ideas with support from all funding avenues, whether it be venture or non-dilutive funding through programs like Australia's Economic Accelerator. Reach out to Gabrielle Munzer or Jason Whitfield if you need a hand finding your way. 📲 #DeepTech

That's right team! The report is out but the work continues!! We really believe SynBio will be a technolgy that changes our industries and plays a pivotal role in mitigating climate change. One day we won't remark upon SynBio companies making products. They will simply be product led companies that happen to use Biology and biomanufacturing to produce them....but for that to happen we need to roll up the sleeves & build them and help bring their products to market. If you think that too (or know someone who does) - get in touch and let's get building with biology & biomanufacturing! David Burt Maddison McCoy Claudia Moratti, PhD Andrew Gray Brendan Kidd Brendan Elliott Joey Man Dina Titkova #biomade #biobased #startup

What role can converging deep-tech play in enabling growth in the bioeconomy? My Cambridge Consultants colleagues, Rebecca Donaldson and James Westley, present a vision for 2035 in this innovation briefing ahead of EFIB 2023, and describe how practical implementations may not be far away. #industrialbiotech #EFIB23 #bioeconomy https://lnkd.in/ewYB6sbt

One of the exciting applications of emerging biotechnology is enabling a more vibrant environment through a process called bioremediation. This latest Building the Future with Biotech paper covers how biotech advancements in plants and microbes can be used to absorb, store, and break down contaminants in our soil and water. Read here: https://lnkd.in/gwrBqpYf The #NSCEB believes that all Americans, including policymakers, students at all levels of #education, current and future #biotechnology workers, and the broader public, should one day be able to use and engage with biotechnology in the same way that they do with computers. As part of the Commission's work to prepare a bio-ready U.S. Government and bio-literate America, you can find white papers on biotechnology-related topics including Biomanufacturing, AIxBio, Bioliteracy for the Age of Biology, and more at https://biotech.senate.gov

What do you get when you combine AI with Chemistry to deliver sustainable chemical developments? Chemify! Chemify is a spin out from Glasgow University on a mission to digitise chemistry so will watch with interest how they develop following their successful capital injection. This is a great example of multidisciplinary innovation to reduce use of physical resources in the early stage development of chemical molecules for a range of uses including new medicines. As they say, those that can, do. https://lnkd.in/erB4n2ir

Busting the infrastructure barrier! As I've written before https://lnkd.in/gMmEv6wP, infrastructure, not technology, is now the biggest barrier to the adoption of alternative proteins and other next generation food products. This article by John Cumbers illustrates one way in which this can be overcome. To paraphrase the article there's 3 stages to getting a biomanufacturing product to market at scale. 1 - Select and develop the right product for the technology. 2 - Validate that the process can scale. 3 - Build your commercial scale facility. Obviously stage 1 is where VC funding of startups comes into play. They can also assist in stage 2, but at stage 3, as the article says, "most investors start getting pretty antsy." Reducing the costs and elapsed time of stages 1 and 2 obviously helps reduce the development cycle time but still leaves the massive elephant in the room, stage 3. That's because the big bucks are of course in building the facility. You're looking at hundreds of millions of dollars, in fact pharma companies can spend up to USD2 billion on their facilities! The whole process from stage 1-3 can take 8 - 10 years, it takes some 2 years just to build the facility. One company addressing the issue is Synonym. As their LinkedIn profile says they're addressing stage 3 by "developing, financing and building commercial-scale biomanufacturing facilities." "We can't use venture capital money to build biomanufacturing capacity. We need infrastructure investors... and they don't want to invest in a single asset. We need to create an asset class." says Synonym co-founder Joshua Lachter in the article. If this asset class can be brought to reality then big pharma companies like Merck and Samsung, and big food companies like Nestle and Unilever may enter the market, driving massive, rapid growth. If we're to create a sustainable food system we're going to need to utilise biomanufacturing processes to replace chemical synthesis. But unfortunately, as the headline says, "There Is No Problem Biology Can't Solve…Except For Economics" I wish Synonym and other companies like Liberation Labs, Invert, Culture Biosciences and more every success in solving problems at every step of the process. #foodfuturist #futureoffood #synbio #syntheticbiology #precisionfermentation

The The White House Advances Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Leadership with the Launch of the National Bioeconomy Board By Sarah Glaven, Principal Assistant Director for Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing, Industrial Innovation, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Biotechnology harnesses the power of biology to create new services and products, which provide opportunities to grow the U.S. economy and workforce and improve the quality of our lives and the environment. This week, the Biden-Harris Administration took an important step toward realizing the potential of biotechnology for the U.S. economy by launching the National Bioeconomy Board. The Board will work with partners across the public and private sectors to advance societal well-being, national security, sustainability, economic productivity, and competitiveness through biotechnology and biomanufacturing. The Board is part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, which is making historic investments through the Inflation Reduction Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and CHIPS and Science Act. These investments are the foundation of a modern American industrial strategy that leverages critical technologies to revitalize U.S. manufacturing, bolster national security, and build a sustainable economy for all Americans. The strategy is catalyzing investment in the bioeconomy: since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration, private companies have announced over $20 billion in biomanufacturing investments. The economic impact of biotechnology and biomanufacturing is poised to expand at a rapid pace over the next two decades, adding thousands of good-paying jobs across many sectors of the economy. Since President Biden issued an executive order to advance biotechnology and biomanufacturing in 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration has been working to make this vision a reality through the President’s Investing in America actions. https://lnkd.in/eVvRsxgJ

We already have everything we need to realise the potential of industrial biotech, we just need to bring it together. In this white paper, Rebecca and I present an ambitious vision for the future of the bioeconomy and discuss what radical innovations are necessary to make it happen. We’ll be at EFIB in Rotterdam next week, come and find us to discuss. #industrialbiotech #EFIB23 #bioeconomy