BioTechnology Beyond The Medical Sector
Most of the attention in the BioTechnology sector is directed toward medicine and pharmaceuticals. The reasons are rather obvious: Biotechnologies can potentially eradicate rare and chronic diseases, fight aging, and cure cancer and infectious diseases.
It is a very profitable sector, with many of the largest companies in the world focused on the pharmaceutical sector.
However, this is not the only field of application for BioTechnology. After all, the biosphere as a whole is essentially an assembly of nanomachines (proteins and cells) able to process sunlight and air into material, food, and energy. Even the entire fossil fuels industry is based on the previous millions of years of biological activity creating coal, oil, and gas.
So, our increasing mastery over life, down to the genetic and molecular levels, could soon see plenty of industrial processes replaced by more sustainable biotechnology-powered technologies.
Food production
The first non-medical field where biotechnology is directly applicable is agricultural production. GMO crops are now decades old and are quickly improving to become a lot more sustainable and less controversial.
Agricultural biotechnology is estimated to increase from $79.9 billion in 2023 to reach $119.6 billion by 2028.
A straightforward application is the development of new crop varieties resistant to diseases & pests or more tolerant of drought, heat waves, flooding, and other climate disturbances.
Another possibility is changing the bacteria and microorganisms on the plants, inside the plants, and in the soil. This could replace the need for chemical fertilizers and pesticides with bacteria. We discussed how we could change the plant microbiome in our article “Engineered Plant Microbiomes—Protecting Crops with Bacteria.”
Source: Energy.gov
In this field, a few leaders have emerged, notably Bayer (BAYRY). The company is a case in point of the blurry line between pharmaceutical and agricultural companies, with activities in both segments.
We discussed this topic and Bayer in our articles “Advancing Agriculture with AI and Genetic Engineering – The Future of Cultivation” and “Minichromosome Technology – The Best Way to Sustainable Growth in Crop Yield?”.
Alternative Foods
Gene editing can also be used to create new types of food. For example, entirely new crops created from weeds can be an option.
Meat substitutes that feel and taste like meat, while having a better health profile, could also be created by changing the genome of mushrooms.
Biofuels & Energy
If plants were the original source of fossil fuels millions of years ago, could freshly grown biomass power us in the future?
This is the promise of biofuels. The first two generations of biofuels only used products from traditional farming (1st generation using food products like corn, the 2nd generation agricultural waste).
But the 3rd generation of biofuels is looking to use custom organisms to directly produce fuel much more efficiently while avoiding putting pressure on food production and freshwater supply.
Biofuels are often ethanol but can also include a variety of other molecules, including long-chain fatty acids (similar to oil), biogas, hydrogen, and ammonia.
One option is to use algae, which could be grown in the ocean or in deserts with seawater. We explored this possibility in “Algal Biofuel: The Next Energy Revolution?”
Source: Exxon
Another option could be to turn well-known organisms like yeast into photosynthetic machines, as we investigated in “Light Happy Yeast May Change Our Approach to Biofuels”.
Lastly, a fusion of biotechnology and nanotech could create 4th generation biofuels. It is also sometimes called “photobiological solar fuel“. This would bypass the need for whole organisms and recreate biological photosynthesis at scale through nanotechnology.
Climate Change
While biofuels could be a serious contributor to fight global warming and reduce fossil fuel usage, this is not the only way biotechnologies could help.
In “Investing In Biotech Stocks Working On Global Warming Solutions” we discussed a few other possibilities:
Source: Medium
Material And Industrial Supplies
Wood
One of the most ancient biomaterials, wood, is still an important material in today’s modern economies. Timber and forestry is a massive industry worth $1.16T in 2024.
Because of their slow growth and time between generations, trees have long been excluded from genetic engineering programs.
Improved genetics could boost wood production and carbon capture.
It could also create novel forms of “tree farming,” where trees are used to produce new valuable compounds, from pharmaceuticals to chemicals.
Source: Modern Agriculture
These concepts will likely be integrated with the progress made in understanding ecosystems, with concepts like agroforestry, food forests, and optimized multi-species forestry boosting both productivity and ecological benefits.
Finally, wood might be a much more potent material than expected. Researchers are discovering alkaline conditions, high temperatures, and biopolymers can turn wood into “augmented wood which can have the strength of steel and a rigidity 23 times greater than concrete”.
Bioplastics & Biochemicals
A large part of fossil fuel consumption, as well as a major pollution source, is dedicated to the production of plastic, which might reach 20% of oil and gas consumption in 2050.
This is an important problem as we start to realize that microplastics are becoming omnipresent, both in our bodies and even in rainwater.
Replacing fossil-fuel-based plastic with bioplastic is a difficult task, with a lot of chemical engineering still needed. But this can be done and is probably required if we want to keep using plastic without irremediably polluting our environment.
We discuss the technical challenges and some of the latest innovations in this sector in “Eco-Friendly Alternatives to Plastics Key to Sustainability Efforts: Are Biodegradable Plastics a Solution?”. And the leading companies in this sector in the “Top 5 Bioplastics Companies”.
Bio-based alternatives are also being found in other fields. For example, for glue, where toxic formaldehyde can be replaced by lignin. Or how panels made of hemp (non-psychoactive cannabis plants) can be used for the thermal isolation of buildings.
Textile Fibers
Researchers have managed to engineer silkworms able to produce at scale spider silk, a fiber 6x tougher than the Kevlar used in bulletproof vests. It could be used in aerospace and military applications, as well as surgical sutures. Spider silk could even be used for robotic muscles.
Pollution Remediation & Environment
Plastic-Eating Bacteria
Plastic pollution can also be solved in another way. Carbios, a French startup has identified a bacteria with a modified enzyme digesting plastic.
Another company, Epoch Biodesign creates proteins able to degrade detergent, paint, agrochemical, plastics, etc.
Even plants and fungi might contribute to the degradation of plastic, adding to the available solutions to remedy pollution.
Cleaning Shale Oil Wastewater
More recently, a new application of emerging biotech fields initially developed for human health appeared.
By using bacteriophages, researchers have managed to reduce the pollution caused by processing wastewater from shale oil production. We discussed in detail how it workes in “Bacteriophages Could Reduce Harm Caused by Fracking, A Notoriously Divisive Practice”.
Resuscitating Dead Species
Plastic pollution or climate change is not the only negative impact of human activities. Many species are either in danger of extinction or were exterminated centuries or millennia ago.
In “Conservation Efforts Boosted by Advances in BioTech – White Rhinos Latest to Benefit”, we looked at how the latest progress in artificial breeding and genetic engineering could save endangered species like the white rhinoceros, and even maybe bring back to life species like the woolly mammoth.
Source: Colossal
DNA Data Storage
A new unexpected segment for biotechnology might be data storage, a field that has been reserved for semiconductors until now. However, DNA is actually an extraordinarily dense medium for information, with DNA information density being 1.47 terabit/mm2 or 950 terabit/in2, or more than 800 times the density of HDDs.
It could also have the unique advantage of being stable over a very long period while not requiring expensive or polluting materials. Storage also does not require energy.
Declining costs and improvements in the accuracy of synthetic DNA synthesis now make high-quality DNA storage possible.
An issue is reading the material, which is significantly more complex than data written on semiconductor substrates. So, it is likely that DNA storage will be confined to archival data and other data not consulted often for the foreseeable future.
The DNA Data Storage Alliance was recently formed and includes DNA synthesis company Twist Biosciences, genomic sequencer company Illumina, data storage company Western Digital, Microsoft, Lenovo, and many others.
Non-Pharma BioTechnology Companies
1. Ginkgo Bioworks
The company is producing on-demand organisms for specific applications. These include biomedical applications and plenty of industrial and material sciences programs.
Gingko is exactly the type of company that large industrial conglomerates could turn to for engineering a custom yeast dedicated to biofuel production. The same holds true for valuable complex chemicals or de-pollution methods.
Ginkgo Bioworks has diversified its applications widely with many research programs and partnerships:
It makes money by being first paid upfront for the development process and then through royalties on the finished product.
Gingko’s partnerships are constantly expanding, with:
Ginkgo Bioworks also partners with all the major agricultural corporations, most of which have some interests in biofuel production and microbiology. A few of these include Bayer, Cargill, Syngenta, Corteva, ADM, Exacta, and more.
Source: Gingko Bioworks
2. Bayer Crop Science (BAYRY)
Bayer Crop Science, part of Bayer Global (also a pharmaceutical company), focuses on innovations around seeds and traits and crop protection.
Bayer’s innovations have helped its biotechnology scientists to make targeted improvements within plant DNA.
Since its merger with Monsanto, it is also a leader in GMO crops and weed management. This merger came with the problem of very expensive RoundUp lawsuits, which caused the company’s stock to tank in the years following the merger.
It controls most of the traditional GMO seed market and is also working on using CRISPR for the next generation of seeds for corn, soybean, wheat, etc.
Crop protection benefits, according to Bayer, are enormous. The crop protection mechanism safeguards around 30 percent of agricultural yields worldwide, equivalent to 550 million tons of food that could feed more than 2 billion people.
Source: Bayer
Bayer is moving from traditional GMOs through a partnership with Gingko Bioworks (DNA), one of the largest synthetic biology companies. The partnership is focused on developing biological alternatives to chemical fertilizers via gene editing of microorganisms.
It is a leader in seed variety and gene editing in plants, with 500+ new crop varieties in its pipeline (and 250 new crop registrations in 2022).
The company is also a leader in integrating technology into farming. For example, Bayer signed a partnership with Microsoft to combine the tech giant’s data management system Azur with Bayer’s expertise in using data from satellites, field sensors, drones, field equipment, and soil sensors to create truly modern and connecting farms.
Source: Bayer
Thanks to its leadership in GMOs (traditional and advanced gene editing), plant variety selection, and integration of big data into farming, Bayer would be a natural candidate to accompany the process of creating de novo domesticated crops, as well as hyperspectral detection of weeds by farming robots.