Biotechnology is making it possible to combat global challenges such as COVID-19. To progress further, biological data and its benefits have to be shared globally, too. To the biotechnology revolution benefit everyone, we must embrace new forms of collaboration.
Advancements in biotechnology are making it possible for us to combat global challenges with biology at their core – like COVID-19 and biodiversity loss – as well as providing solutions to more diverse issues – like supply chain breakdowns and chemical pollution. But to reach its full potential, we need to improve how biological data is accessed and how benefits are shared about bioeconomy. Public and private sectors, civil society, and academia must work together to find an ethical solution.
Bioeconomy expected to be major source of economic growth
The bioeconomy, or the fraction of the economy driven by research and innovation in biotechnology, already represents a significant proportion of total global economic output and it will much more growth over the coming decades. Historically dominated by the biomedical and agricultural sectors, biotechnology is now being used across myriad disciplines. This is possible because of falling costs of basic life science development processes, like DNA synthesis and DNA sequencing, and efficiency of gene editing tools like CRISPR.
These shifts are making an evolution in economics area.
The McKinsey Global Institute guessed that this field will have an economic impact of up to $4 trillion USD a year over the next 10 to 20 years. With innovation across molecular- and systems biology, machine-interface and computing arenas, they emphasized that as much as 60% of the world’s manufacturing raw materials could be produced biologically.
Biotechnology revolution key to addressing major global challenges
New biotechnology has not only given us the answer to struggle COVID-19, but also stands to be our best shot at addressing other massive global challenges, such as climate change and biodiversity loss.
Data as a key driver of the bioeconomy
Data that catalogs the natural world is a critical component to a thriving bioeconomy. Because biological data is the raw material that enables the design of novel biological systems inspired by nature. Synthetic biology also lets us rapidly develop vaccines and therapeutics during epidemics and pandemics. But, difficulties in sharing these biological datas create risk. Despite the known its importance, present day approaches to sharing biological data - and related benefits - are not well enough to unlocking the potential for new biotechnology to benefit society. Data on genetic sequences, structure-function relationships, growth patterns, stress responses and more are needed to progress, but this data is not always accessible enough.
Given urgent global challenges, improving to solutions are waited to share biological knowledge, data, and the benefits of the bioeconomy. As synthetic biology advances and increases its capability to aid in resolving global crises, global stakeholders must agree on effective standards for ensuring ethical access and availability of genetic information.
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This piece was authored by The Global Commons Working Group of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council of Synthetic Biology.
