Biotechnology – one of the fastest-growing scientific fields – utilizes tools from biology, chemistry, computing, engineering, and mathematics to advance research promising medical breakthroughs.
Biotechnology products and solutions generated about $1 trillion in revenue worldwide in 2021, a 34% increase from five years ago, according to the 2021 Global Biotechnology Innovation Scorecard, which ranks the United States as a leader in such advancements.
“The United States has definitely been a leader in biotechnology for many years and continues to expand the field,” said Natalie Betz, academic director of the University of Wisconsin – Madison School of Medicine.
A pillar of biotechnology is genetic engineering, a process by which scientists alter the genes within a living cell to change its characteristics and develop new products. (Genes are made up of DNA, which are the molecules that provide instructions for a cell’s function.)
In 1988, the U.S. laid the groundwork for modern genetic engineering when Congress funded the creation of the Human Genome Project, an international collaboration to map and sequence the human genome. (A genome is a sort of instruction manual for how to build a living organism.) Most of the map was completed by 2003, driving thousands of medical discoveries – from cancer treatments to fixes for hereditary diseases and organ revitalization. In March, a scientific team led by Americans completed the map of the human genome.
Here are 3 recent discoveries by American scientists that are advancing biotechnology:
• Gene Editing Technology: Many scientists in the U.S. – including Jennifer Doudna, a biochemist at the University of California, Berkeley, and Emmanuelle Charpentier, a biochemist and director of the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens – have worked on a technique to “edit” genes called CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats). The technique allows scientists to alter and turn on and off the hereditary instructions of a cell. The discovery has had broad impacts on medicine. It is being used to treat previously incurable diseases, such as sickle cell anemia, and to develop new medical diagnostic tools, such as optogenetics, which allow researchers to investigate more deeply how the brain works. In 2020, Doudna and Charpentier won the Nobel Prize for their joint work on CRISPR.
• Synthetic Biology: J. Craig Venter, a biotechnologist and principal investigator in the Human Genome Project, created the first synthetic bacterium. The genome of the synthetic bacterium was built in the lab, rather than being born or evolved from another living bacterium. Following in Venter’s footsteps, two scientists, Bill Banyai and Bill Peck, combined their expertise in semiconductor manufacturing and genome sequencing to manufacture synthetic genes. Their company, Twist Bioscience, provides synthetic genes to companies to support R&D in biotechnology (including creating new products like next-generation antibiotics that bacteria cannot overcome) and to support scientists building synthetic organisms.
• Regenerative Medicine: With scientists’ understanding of the human genome and how to manufacture organisms in laboratories, a growing number of researchers are working on building human tissues to replace body parts. In June, 3DBio Therapeutics, a regenerative medicine company based in New York City, announced that it had built a new ear for a young girl born without a fully developed ear. The company used the girl’s own cells to construct an ear with 3D printing technology and then implanted it under a flap of skin where the ear should have been. Since the implant uses the host’s cells, the risk of the body rejecting the new ear is lower. The implant was considered the first successful medical application of tissue printing technology and a major breakthrough in the field of tissue engineering.
Source: share.america.gov, by Bara Vaida