Experts: Sven Panke (ETH Zürich)
In the coming years, synthetic biology will act as a driving force for personalised medicine and accelerate development of new types of active substances and vaccines. This interdisciplinary field offers good opportunities for Switzerland as a location for research and business. If knowledge transfer is successful, the chemical and pharmaceutical industries can expect an increase in efficiency and an improved eco-balance for processes and products compared to today. DNA computers, which also benefit from advances in synthetic biology, could be potentially disruptive.
Picture: Terry Vlisidis, Unsplash
Synthetic biology represents a sub-field of the life sciences, which applies engineering principles in order to design, reproduce or modify biological systems in targeted ways at cellular level in the laboratory. One key aspect is the development of standardised components, such as genetic material or cell envelopes, which can be assembled to form new types of units in an easily controllable manner. Synthetic biology also encompasses the construction of minimal organisms that only have the minimum set of genes needed to be able to survive. One key technology in synthetic biology is DNA synthesis.
In synthetic biology, the ideas applicable to the reliability and complexity of the sought designs are similar to those in engineering. With its multidisciplinary approach, synthetic biology reaches far into the fields of diagnostics and materials, but is equally relevant to the IT sector and the chemicals industry.
Synthetic biology has made its way into the field of biotechnology and is playing an increasingly important role in the production of complex active substances. The antimalarial agent artemisinin is traditionally extracted from the medicinal plant sweet wormwood, in an expensive process. To produce this agent artificially, twelve enzymes are needed. Using synthetic biology, these are expressed together in yeast cells, so that the substance can be produced in a comparatively cheap and scalable manner. It can be assumed that synthetic biology will at least partially replace conventional chemical synthesis in the production of complex molecules. In recent years, advances in DNA synthesis have meant that entire genomes can be produced and modified at high speed, something that modern vaccines are taking advantage of.
Future applications of synthetic biology in the life sciences will become drivers of personalised medicine, meaning therapy based on molecular genetic tests and adapted to patients’ specific genetic characteristics. The integration of circuits into the body is conceivable, in order to detect diagnostically relevant disease markers and intervene therapeutically.
Synthetic biology is also used outside the life sciences though, for example in ensuring product authenticity. Raw gold bars, for instance, can be impregnated with an invisible liquid that contains artificial DNA and is specific to each mine: forgery-proof evidence that the gold in a bar comes from a specific mine. The application of this patented technology from Switzerland can be extended to diamonds, raw materials and textiles. A revolution in computer science is also on the horizon: DNA computers use the properties of genetic material to store and process data. It is hoped that this will result in computers with high computing power, but the technology is still in the early stages of development and faces numerous challenges, for instance regarding reliable access to the stored data.
The opportunities that synthetic biology represents for society mainly reside in the field of personalised medicine, as well as in the development of new kinds of efficient medicines and vaccines. In order to make these opportunities a reality though, a number of technical challenges have to be overcome. To assemble larger and larger blocks of genetic material quickly and cheaply, advances are needed in DNA synthesis. In addition, it is necessary to test the use of atypical building blocks in hereditary molecules and to determine the resulting properties.
Synthetic biology thrives on interdisciplinarity and requires an integrated network of researchers. At its Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering in Basel, ETH Zurich brings together all sorts of disciplines, such as chemistry, genetics, molecular biology, computer science and engineering, at one location. The department acts as a nucleus for new innovations and the founding of spin-offs. If transfer to the chemical and pharmaceutical industries is successful, synthetic biology will be a tool that increases efficiency and enhances the sustainability of processes and products, but at the same time also relies on the knowledge of external experts. To create a suitable environment, knowledge exchange across national borders is essential. The lack of full association with the EU’s Horizon Europe framework programme thus poses a serious threat to Switzerland’s prospects as a location.
There is a high level of acceptance in the general public. In order to avoid jeopardising this, applications of synthetic biology in the natural environment must be strictly controlled, as their effects have not yet been sufficiently researched. This includes gene-drive technology, which ensures that a genetic modification wanted by humans spreads rapidly within a population and is being used to control mosquito populations.
Early financing of the ETH Zurich Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering in Basel, provided by both the Swiss Confederation and the governments of the two Basel cantons, has laid the foundation for successful development of this centre of excellence in Switzerland. In the coming years though, the lack of EU funding will have to be compensated for. In order to meet the technical challenges optimally, a major nationwide initiative in the fields of DNA synthesis and/or information storage in DNA would be a step in the right direction.
