At the Synthetic Biology seminar held in Transchem Science and Technology City on May 25, More than 60 representatives from all walks of life, including government, research institutes and enterprises, discussed the topics of technological innovation and industrial transformation in the field of synthetic biology. Experts attending the meeting believed that synthetic biology has the potential of major disruptive technological innovation, and the current industry is ushering in historical development opportunities. China needs to find a new direction in promoting the integrated development of synthetic biology industry, university and research, and using information technology to explore the competitive advantages of synthetic biology technology.

Development opportunity has reached

Mass production and cost reduction are pain points

Not long ago, the National Development and Reform Commission issued China's first Five-Year plan for bioeconomy, "the 14th Five-Year Plan for Bioeconomy Development", in which synthetic biology has been mentioned many times. According to the plan, it is necessary to promote technological innovation in synthetic biology, break through key technologies such as the calculation design of biological strains, high-throughput screening, efficient expression and precision regulation, and orderly promote applications in the fields of new drug development, disease treatment, agricultural production, substance synthesis, environmental protection, energy supply and new material development.

"Synthetic biology has the potential of major disruptive technological innovation, is the forefront of international science and technology, and is becoming the focus of scientific and technological development and research hotspot in China." Wang Baojun, deputy dean of the Institute of Biology and Molecular Intelligence and director of the Institute of Synthetic Biology at Hangzhou International Science and Innovation Center of Zhejiang University, pointed out.

But at the same time, the synthetic biology industry still faces many pain points. On the one hand, the research cost of synthetic biotechnology is high and the cycle is long. Although a variety of raw materials can be produced by biosynthesis in theory, there are only a handful of materials that can really have more advantages than chemical synthesis in cost and exceed 100,000 tons in scale. On the other hand, there are breakpoints in the production-university-research chain, and excellent products are difficult to enter the production environment from the laboratory for large-scale and commercial production.

"It is very important to establish the standard of synthetic biology." "But the key to synthetic biology is mass production and cost reduction," said Tang Haisong, an industry development consultant in Baoshan District, Shanghai.

Reduce the threshold of product development with the help of information technology

How to improve the research and development efficiency of scientific research institutes, reduce the cost of synthetic biotechnology research and development, and achieve rapid mass production of products is a problem in front of the industry.

Chaulan, founder of Yanjin Technology, said that synthetic biology is the use of engineering research paradigm, through the modular and standardized dismantling and reconstruction of biological systems, to establish an abstract level, so as to analyze and use biological systems. Therefore, the use of artificial intelligence, machine learning and other technologies to transform biological systems on a large scale can accelerate the research and development process.

At present, many universities and enterprises are using automated scientific devices and machine learning to quickly find optimal solutions in high-dimensional complex systems of biosynthesis. Among them, Zhejiang University International Science and Technology Innovation Center has built a model of biological circuit design to serve the development of biological industry, and based on this model, the artificial cell automatic casting platform of Zhejiang University Hangzhou Science and Technology Innovation Center has been built. The second-generation system Darwin platform developed by Yanjin Technology can use the automatic process to accelerate the development process of biological products on a large scale, reduce the threshold of biological product development, and quickly meet the market demand. Enhe bio's Bio-Foundry also offers a highly automated total bio-manufacturing platform that can be used to efficiently reprogram organisms and develop their potential.

"Looking back at the development of synthetic biology in the past decade and looking forward to the next decade, I believe that automation of gene circuit design will be an important direction for the development of synthetic biology." Wang Baojun said.

Promote the transformation of results

Promote the integrated development of production, learning and research

Since 2021, the investment and financing of China's synthetic biology track has accelerated significantly, and new enterprises in related fields continue to emerge, and synthetic biology is moving from laboratories to production lines, from universities and research institutes to industry. Promoting the integrated development of production, university and research, promoting the transformation of synthetic biology results, and accelerating the training of professional talents will be the inevitable demand of the development of the industry.

Vice President of Transhua Group Xu Xun said that they have been committed to increasing the deep link of scientific and technological innovation resources, opening up rich application scenarios for scientific research institutions and scientific and creative enterprises, and providing industrialization landing support. At present, Chuanhua Science and Technology City created by the group is building an international science and innovation community with the life science industry as the core, which will combine the superior resources of Zhejiang University International Science and Innovation Center in disciplines, talents, test platforms and other aspects, while absorbing high-quality science and innovation enterprises to form an industrial agglomeration effect.

Jiang Yuan, deputy director of Xiaoshan District Science and Technology Bureau, proposed that on the basis of accelerating the construction of scientific research platform, through the implementation of the "three projects" of famous universities, famous institutes and famous institutes, a large number of high-level scientific research platforms such as Zhejiang University International Science and Technology innovation Center should be introduced, vigorously supporting the platform and enterprises to carry out collaborative technological research, and at the same time, increasing the cultivation of high and new technology and stimulating the vitality of innovation subjects. In the future, Xiaoshan District Science and Technology Bureau will further build a docking platform for enterprises and colleges, smooth the technology supply side and demand side docking channel, provide more favorable policies and services, and create a better innovation ecological environment.

Yao Yuan, deputy director of the Synthetic Biology Institute of Zhejiang University International Science and Technology Center, also introduced the concept of the construction of "Zhejiang Synthetic biology Industry Technology Alliance". He said that the establishment of the alliance will promote the bio-pharmaceutical industry chain, innovation service chain and supply chain "three-chain collaboration", give play to the advantages of synthetic biology enterprises in base construction and achievement transformation, promote the technological innovation of synthetic biology industry, accelerate the construction of synthetic biology innovation platform, organize industrial common key technology research, and realize the collaborative innovation and development of synthetic biology industry chain.