Biologically Inspired Engineering, synbio, synthetic biology, crispr
Inovio Pharmaceuticals filed suit against VGXI, a subsidiary of South Korea’s GeneOne Life Sciences, last month, accusing it of not transferring technical details pertaining to manufacturing doses of INO-4800, Inovio’s DNA vaccine compound with promising results against SARS-CoV-2. Inovio details in the lawsuit that VGXI does not possess the capacity to scale up manufacturing, which is essential … Read more
The Pershing Square Foundation recently announced that it has awarded $3 million to nineteen recipients at ten academic research institutions in furtherance of conducting research related to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. As scientists across various disciplines around the world have risen to the challenge of combating SARS-CoV-2, The Pershing Square Foundation (the “Foundation”) worked with its … Read more
In 2017, the National Science Foundation (NSF) unveiled a set of “Big Ideas,” 10 bold, long-term research and process ideas that identify areas for future investment at the frontiers of science and engineering. Synthetic biology, or “Understanding the Rules of Life,” is one of the NSF’s big ideas. The ability to design and manufacture synthetic … Read more
The McKinsey Global Institute has published a tome, “The Bio Revolution” that attempts to quantify the risks and opportunities for synthetic biology. Here is the document’s glossary: Allele. Any of the alternative forms of a gene that may occur at a given locus.Bioinformatics. A hybrid science between computer science, biology, and statistics that involves the … Read more
Global food security is a big concept for a small company. To achieve its lofty goals, Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. is focused on developing new technologies to achieve step-change improvements in crop yields. The company has an extensive track record of innovation based around optimizing the flow of carbon in living systems, and it is leveraging … Read more
The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) has outlined in “The Bio Revolution” the current state of innovation in agriculture, aquaculture, and food. According to MGI, humans have been growing crops and raising animals for thousands of years using a evolving set of tools and techniques. Since the dawn of agriculture, humans have used tools like selective … Read more
Invitae (NYSE: NVTA), a leading genetics and synthetic biology company, and ArcherDX, a leading genomics analysis company innovating in precision oncology, today announced the companies have entered into an agreement to combine. The combined company aims to advance care for cancer patients by accelerating adoption of genetics . Integrating germline testing, tumor profiling and liquid biopsy … Read more
ArcherDX, Inc. announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Device Designation for its next-generation sequencing (NGS) device under development as a companion diagnostic (CDx) to detect neurotrophic receptor tyrosine kinase (NTRK) gene fusions that lead to the formation and growth of cancer. ArcherDX’s NGS technology utilizes proprietary Anchored Multiplex PCR … Read more
The study of viruses once challenged the world’s notion of what is “biological,” and for a time it was unclear whether viruses were regulated by the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC). Lying “at the edge of life,” viruses likely were not banned as a biological weapon until they were defined as a biological agent in 1969, … Read more
Advances in biological sciences, accelerated by computing, automation, and artificial intelligence (AI), is fueling a new wave of innovation that will impact economies and societies that will surpass the industrial revolution. In fact, these new capabilities and applications are already improving our response to global challenges from climate change to pandemics. But these innovations come … Read more