In today’s rapidly evolving scientific landscape, eliminating barriers to progress is more critical than ever. Precision medicine and targeted therapies hold great promise but are dependent on the ability to produce massive amounts of DNA in the early research and development phases. Innovations like the first synthetic flu vaccine and advancements in pharmaceuticals with fewer side effects are dependent on advancements in synthetic biology. It is crucial to remove bottlenecks in synthetic biology workflows that impact the speed and progress of research and development, increase costs and ultimately delay innovation.
The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) models is driving competitive advantage as nearly every company that is doing biological or drug discovery is using AI tools to design molecules. New advances in synthetic biology enable rapid, accurate, and reproducible writing of DNA and mRNA for wide-ranging biological applications that replace the need to outsource to a vendor, saving significant time and empowering teams to take their innovations in-house.
Streamlining supply chains and accelerating timelines
Eliminating the bottleneck created by service providers and allowing for full control of DNA synthesis in a way that is faster, uniquely high-quality and fully automated, can help significantly speed up therapeutic discovery. Traditionally, working with an outside vendor could take more than 14 days – however, new technologies can cut down the timeframe to less than a day and reduce time to results by 93%.
A novel enzymatic ‘digital to biological converter’ approach to DNA and mRNA synthesis empowers biotech companies to create molecules on-site without waiting for an external service provider, significantly streamlining the process. Giving researchers control over valuable data that can be used to optimize their AI models for drug discovery and development empowers them to iterate quickly by generating new constructs overnight for rapid testing and data generation on-demand.
Fueling drug discovery to develop breakthrough therapies
New technologies allow researchers and pharmaceutical companies to design a gene and make it in-house overnight, helping to feed their AI engine. The technology is faster, uniquely high-quality and fully automated, providing data that fuels drug discovery and the ability to develop breakthrough therapies. An example is metabolic pathway optimization, which is significantly impacted by AI in synthetic biology, as AI models contain massive amounts of genomic data, experimental outcomes, and biochemical knowledge. With these datasets, AI can precisely predict the impact of genetic changes on a cell’s metabolic functions – drastically cutting down on traditional time-intensive trial and error approaches, enabling targeted guidance on which genes to modify for optimal results.
Giving scientists direct control over DNA and mRNA synthesis timelines is a game changer, enabling high-fidelity genes and mRNA constructs to be built overnight, on demand, and right in the lab. This accelerates discovery across drug development, antibody engineering, and vaccine research by removing delays and unlocking faster experimentation.
Conclusion
Researchers around the world must continue to leverage new technologies to overcome current bottlenecks in synthetic biology workflows and advance the discovery of cutting-edge solutions for health and technology. These breakthroughs in synthetic biology could help accelerate advances in applications from novel infectious disease vaccines, precision immunotherapy for cancer and antibody therapeutics to creation of engineered meat substitutes and sustainable cellular agricultural products. The expanding field of synthetic biology holds great promise to modernize industries that have a direct impact on population health.
Image: metamorworks, Getty Images
Eric Esser is President and Chief Executive Officer of Telesis Bio, having first joined the company as Chief Operating Officer in May 2022. He stepped into the CEO role in April 2024, bringing with him over 25 years of leadership experience across sales, marketing, operations, and product development. Esser’s career spans a broad range of global leadership roles, with a particular focus on scaling early-stage, high-growth life science companies. His cross-functional expertise and deep industry knowledge continue to shape the future of synthetic biology and innovation at Telesis Bio.
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