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In the era of big data, AI technology has shown unique advantages in the characteristic characterization of complex objects, multimodal fusion, and automatic sample generation, which has inserted wings for the application of synthetic biology.
1 Programming human cells is coming
"Each cell type has its own program or code—a combination of transcription factors that define it. By inserting the right program into the stem cells, researchers can activate genes that code for these transcription factors and transform the stem cells into specific types of mature cells." Mark Kotter, CEO of Bit Bio, said in an interview with Wired magazine a few days ago.
Bit Bio is a biotechnology company that provides differentiated human cell and tissue models for basic research, drug discovery and toxicology research, and in 2016, Dr Mark Kotter discovered opti-ox technology in a laboratory at the University of Cambridge, founding Elpis Biomed (the predecessor of Bit Bio).
opti-ox is a breakthrough genetic engineering method that enables direct reprogramming of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to drive precise differentiation of iPSCs by activating the expression of specific transcription factors within cells to mass-produce any type of cell in the human body.
Ramy Ibrahim, CHIEF OPERATING officer of Bit Bio, said in an interview with Wired that Bit Bio's technology could help reduce the cost of cell therapy and make it easier to make immune cells at scale. "We can now edit a lot of the right cell types, which I think will be transformative."
At present, The two main products under development of Bit Bio are glutamatergic neurons and skeletal muscle cells generated by reprogramming iPSCs using opti-ox technology.
In November, Bit Bio announced the completion of a $103 million Series B funding round with investors including Arch Ventures, Charles River Laboratories, Foresite Capital, National Resilience, Inc. Resilience, Metaplanet, Puhua Capital and Tencent. Bit Bio said the company's next development plan is to move into cell therapy, using opti-ox technology for research, drug discovery and cell therapy.
One of the biggest obstacles to human cell research is the supply of human cells. Current approaches are insufficient to produce a reliable, scalable, and consistent supply of cells without relying on patients, resulting in cell therapies being expensive and unscalibly scalable.
In addition, the lack of reliable sources of human cells has also hindered the development of new drugs. Most clinical trials fail, in part because of differences between animal models and cell lines used in drug development and human biology. opti-ox technology can bring greater precision to cell therapies.
Recently, The Bit Bio Board of Directors welcomed three new members: Hermann Hauser, co-founder of Arm Ltd. Holdings, the world's leading British computer chip company; Gregory Winter, a Nobel laureate who invented the technology to produce therapeutic monoclonal antibodies; and entrepreneur Alan S. Roemer, who founded three multibillion-dollar biotechnology companies.
They will provide important guidance as Bit Bio expands its proprietary synthetic biology cell programming technology platform to help create products and solutions based on human cells.
It is worth mentioning that cell therapy technology can also be used for cell meat culture. What both have in common is that both involve stem cell differentiation, but the direction of research is different. Human iPSC cell differentiation is mainly used in the medical field, and cell culture meat research is the use of animal stem cells to manufacture muscle, fat and other cells on a large scale and at low cost.
In addition to Bit Bio, Mark Kotter is also a co-founder of Meatable. Meatable is a cell culture meat company that wants to change the way the world gets protein.
Meatable said a method has been developed to sample tissue from animals, restore that tissue to pluripotent stem cells, and then culture that cell sample to convert muscle and fat into muscle and fat to produce pork products flavored around the world.
2 When AI meets synthetic creatures
Essentially, opti-ox is a synthetic biology approach. Synthetic biology is an emerging interdisciplinary science in the life sciences, considered to be a new key to understanding life, one of the disruptive technologies of the future, and will provide a new source of technology for medicine and health security, agriculture and food safety, and environmental and energy security.
In recent years, the trend of combining AI and synthetic biology has become more and more obvious. Biology is very complex, and in humans alone, there are trillions of cells interacting and guiding. Traditional biology relies on experience or discovery to gather knowledge, and this labor-intensive process is accompanied by a lot of trial and error.
The potential for AI to draw conclusions from large biological datasets will bring about dramatic changes in biology. For example, self-trained artificial intelligence programs may quickly find subtle and unique models and biological functions after analyzing large amounts of information, helping humans better understand the principles of biology.
In October, Bit Bio partnered with the London Institute of Mathematical Sciences (LIMS) to unlock a "living operating system" to facilitate the mass production of human cells for research and therapeutic purposes.
Dr Thomas Fink, founder and director of the London Institute of Mathematical Sciences, said: "Decoding cellular identity will require a whole new kind of mathematics and a deeper understanding of machine learning. An operating system that reveals life allows us to design human cells as easily as software."
"AI is transforming the biotech industry, and through continuous investment in AI and machine learning, the huge potential of the biotech industry will be unlocked." Robert Orton Work, chairman of the National AI Safety Commission, recently said that as computing power increases, there is reason to expect more progress in synthetic biology and a range of biology-based products.
The combination of synthetic biology technology and artificial intelligence will produce special materials, such as more environmentally friendly artificial meat, to cleaner fuels, to synthetic organs. Biotechnology will also make our supply chains more resilient, allowing us to produce raw materials for textiles domestically, alternatives to petroleum products, and a range of other consumer goods, such as household products and electronics, without having to source them from abroad. Biotechnology can also be used to produce environmentally friendly fertilizers, improve the readiness of the military, and create solutions to monitor biological threats.
It is estimated that over the next 10 years, with the convergence of AI, advances in biotechnology will bring direct economic benefits of up to $4 trillion per year. In light of these trends, a March 2021 report by the National Council on Artificial Intelligence Safety (NSCAI) identified biotechnology as one of seven emerging technologies critical to the competitiveness of future countries.
Needless to say, in the field of synthetic biology, the use of advanced computing technology can greatly reduce manufacturing costs and improve efficiency. Using ARTIFICIAL intelligence to simulate and predict the results to be generated in advance before building a cell model or biological tissue will transform the product development process from "experimental" to "engineered".
However, while paying attention to the development of AI and synthetic biology itself, it is also necessary to pay attention to the shortcomings in the combination of the two. Both AI and synthetic biology are still in the development stage, which may make the deep connection between the two difficult to explore, and may even affect its own development. At the same time, AI-driven biotechnology also has its dark side, such as precisely designed pathogens, listed as one of the five AI hidden dangers that pose the greatest threat to the United States.
For reference:
https://www.bit.bio/
https://www.meatable.com/news-room/
https://new.qq.com/omn/20211103/20211103A08BZD00.html
http://m.emedclub.com/information/view/35836157afb811eab602b8599f3054c8
https://kuaibao.qq.com/s/20210119A019SM00?refer=cp_1026
https://m.medsci.cn/article/show_article.do?id=fcaf938954b
https://warontherocks.com/2021/05/ai-and-synthetic-biology-are-critical-to-future-u-s-competitiveness/
http://www.bauhinia.org/index.php/zh-HK/analyses/852
https://www.dzxl120.com/new-ai-machine-learning-emerging-in-synthetic-biology/
https://blog.benchsci.com
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