Synthetic biology is new to many, but it paints a grand picture of the world's efforts to replace the now established and massive chemical industry by making matter in a biological way, and has attracted bets from all walks of life.
What is the power of synthetic biology, how is it developing at this stage, and what kind of future scene does it depict for us? Recently, Nandu Pazhou π interviewed Wei Tao, founder and CEO of Shaohe Biotechnology, which was established in Haizhu District, Guangzhou.
He has gone all the way from a top student and enthusiast in biology to the field of synthetic biology, and now he has founded his own company, hoping to apply the scientific research results of the laboratory to industrial production, and also hopes to build a platform for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in Guangzhou, so as to accelerate the transformation of synthetic biology from the laboratory to the market.
Wei Tao is the founder and CEO of Guangdong Shaohe Biotechnology Co., Ltd.
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Artificial intelligence and gene editing have accelerated the explosive development of synthetic biology
What is synthetic biology? Synthetic biology uses gene editing and other means, borrowing "cell factories", and through engineering, computer science and other means to achieve the directional production of substances. In this field, the production of matter is done in the cell, which is completely different from the way of creation such as chemical synthesis and physical manufacturing.
The disruptive nature of its production methods makes this industry a huge industrial potential. According to McKinsey, a third-party consulting firm, the economic impact of global synthetic biology and biomanufacturing is expected to reach $100 billion by 2025, and 60% of the world's material production in the future can be achieved through biomanufacturing.
Synthetic biology has become one of the main tracks of scientific and technological competition among major countries. The "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Bioeconomy" issued by the National Development and Reform Commission proposes to develop synthetic biology technology, explore the research and development of new foods such as "artificial protein", realize the iterative upgrading of the food industry, and reduce the pressure on environmental resources brought by the traditional aquaculture industry.
"In recent years, both the government and the market, universities and enterprises have paid great attention to synthetic biology. Synthetic biology has ushered in explosive development. The reason, Wei Tao introduced, is mainly caused by technological breakthroughs in two aspects.
One is artificial intelligence. "Gene sequencing in the field of synthetic biology generates a lot of data, and AI technology can easily process this data. In short, Wei Tao said, "we are beginning to understand what nature is all about." ”
The other is gene editing technology. "Gene editing technology has greatly improved the efficiency of genetic modification of organisms by humans. Taking probiotics as an example, 10 years ago it was very difficult for us to modify genes, but now a project can modify 20 to 50 genes, which is much larger in scope and scale than before. ”
"When the technology matures, we will be able to think about the simple question of how synthetic biology can meet the needs of our lives. For example, Wei Tao said, whether the food we eat can taste better, and whether ingredients with whitening and anti-aging can become cheaper. "Arbutin compounds have antioxidant and whitening properties and are often used in skin care products. Natural arbutin compounds are expensive, but after being manufactured through synthetic biology, they have become cheaper, and more and more people are able to enjoy them at affordable prices. ”
Wei Tao believes that synthetic biology can make ingredients that originally came from nature fall from high prices to civilian prices, and use technology to make them more inclusive. "Because of this, there is a lot of interest in synthetic biology from all walks of life. ”
Wei Tao attended the 11th Congress of Guangzhou Association for Science and Technology.
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Synthetic biology paints a new picture of the future
What exactly can synthetic biology do? How is it developing now? Wei Tao described some specific scenarios.
"The movie Jurassic Park is about scientists resurrecting dinosaurs through technology. In fact, it should not be possible to resurrect dinosaurs with our current technology, but it is possible to resurrect mammoths and saber-toothed tigers. Wei Tao explained that we generally think of DNA as being preserved for a million years. Mammoths and saber-toothed tigers are not far from our current age, their genes are still relatively intact in some permafrost plateaus, genomic DNA fragmentation is not serious, synthetic biology may resurrect them, and scientists are now trying.
"Another thing that is expected to be possible in the near future is to have pigs or cattle grow organs that humans will not be immune to. Wei Tao said that at that time, we only need to raise some pigs and cattle to be able to carry out organ transplants smoothly, and there will be no more illegal acts such as organ trading.
Wei Tao also gave an example that is very close to us, namely: nucleic acid testing. "What you can clearly feel is that the price of nucleic acid testing has been decreasing, and in addition to the method of mixed testing, synthetic biology has also played a big role. Wei Tao said that nucleic acid detection requires the use of an enzyme, but this enzyme relied on imports in the early stage, and later with the improvement and optimization of synthetic biology technology, we achieved domestic substitution, which greatly reduced the price of nucleic acid testing.
The technical capabilities of synthetic biology have opened the door to new ways of creating things, but it has also raised concerns among some people, including the contamination of the human gene pool due to improper use, and the creation of unequal births. Wei Tao, who has a deep sense of synthetic biology technical capabilities, also showed vigilance about this. To this end, he twice suggested to the relevant departments, hoping to strengthen the supervision of technology.
"Technology is neutral. Nuclear technology, for example, can be used as a weapon of mass destruction as well as to solve the energy problem. Wei Tao's suggestion is to hope that the direction of synthetic biology will fall on the positive needs of human beings. "Synthetic biology can have a lot of positive effects, and we can't let the dark side give up the bright side because of its dark side. It is important to strengthen supervision in the process. ”
Wei Tao conducts biological experiments in the laboratory.
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From the top students in the discipline of interest to scientific research to entrepreneurship
Wei Tao is a native of Guangzhou, and his interest in biology originated in elementary school. In the TV column of "Animal World", as well as in the tour of the local zoo and botanical garden, Wei Tao developed a strong interest in biology.
In high school, he chose biology as an "X" subject to take the college entrance examination, which was also the subject where he scored at the top. In 2007, he was successfully admitted to Sun Yat-sen University, majoring in biotechnology. Industrial microbiology was the research direction of his undergraduate thesis.
In 2011, he chose to study for a master's degree and a doctorate, and began to get in touch with synthetic biology under the leadership of Liu Jianzhong, who is now a professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Life Sciences of Sun Yat-sen University. "My dissertation focused on metabolic engineering and synthetic biology. ”
Wei Tao said frankly that during his doctoral studies, there was no qualitative breakthrough in gene editing technology, but a qualitative breakthrough in the year he graduated, and new technologies grew explosively. "This made it difficult to execute some of the projects during my PhD, and it also required me to be constantly exposed to new technologies. ”
In July 2021, at a party, Wei Tao met Hao Hu, the company's current chief medical officer. After Wei Tao introduced his basic and applied research in the fields of microbial metabolic engineering, synthetic biology and fermentation engineering in the field of synthetic biology, the two hit it off at first sight, hoping to combine their respective strengths and make some new attempts to benefit more patients.
Hao Hu works in clinical practice, and his main work is to discover the hereditary metabolic diseases of patients and treat them through existing methods. "Even though they are already the world's leading medical level, they still haven't gotten rid of the situation of 'headache and headache'. The modification of the metabolic network of the probiotics I studied can achieve the effect of degrading the metabolites in the body after the patient uses probiotics. ”
The two communicated repeatedly and established Shaohe Bio in November 2021. As a company that has just been established for two years, the business of Shaohe Bio is divided into two major sectors. One is computational biology, which mainly combines clinical genetic diseases for computational analysis, which belongs to the scope of scientific research services. The other is the production of products in the direction of synthetic biology. The product is expected to be marketed in the near future.
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It is hoped to build a platform for the transformation of synthetic biology scientific research achievements
The "ambition" of synthetic biology is intended to replace the now large and established chemical industry. "The products produced by the chemical industry have long entered the homes of ordinary people, but their pollution cannot be ignored. Wei Tao said that synthetic biology is a green production method that can avoid pollution problems, which is a major technology in the 21st century.
The reporter combed and found that among the 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) in China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan), 18 provinces (municipalities) have written "synthetic biology" into the "14th Five-Year Plan". The "14th Five-Year Plan for Science and Technology Innovation in Guangzhou" clearly proposes to develop the analysis of scientific problems in the field of synthetic biology, and strive to seize the commanding heights of basic frontier scientific research.
In Wei Tao's view, Guangzhou's university resource advantages are obvious and irreplaceable in other cities. "Industries can be transferred, but the transfer of college teachers is very rare. Therefore, facing the critical window period for synthetic biology to move from the laboratory to the market, Wei Tao believes that Guangzhou needs a platform for the transformation of scientific research achievements to connect the information needs of all aspects of the industry, so that scientific research results can find a market and the market can feed back scientific research.
Wei Tao revealed that he is planning to build this platform, when Guangzhou will greatly make up for the gap with other cities and give full play to its own advantages.
It is understood that in the field of synthetic biology, Guangzhou is slightly deficient in scientific research and industrial application. Shenzhen has the Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology Innovation, which focuses on the basic principles of synthetic biology, common methods and medical translational applications, and has gathered a team of scientists focusing on synthetic biology. Jinan City, Shandong Province has the State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, and microbial biocatalysis and biosynthesis technology is one of the three major scientific research directions of the laboratory. As early as 2008, Shanghai established the first synthetic biology laboratory in mainland China.
The reporter noticed that Haizhu District, where Shaohe Biology is located, specifically mentioned the development of synthetic biology for the first time at this year's district-level high-quality development conference.
Exhibited π Nanto and Pasu
Written by: Nandu Pazhou π reporter Dai Guohui
Photo: Courtesy of the interviewee