What industries do investors think will “break out” in 2021? We’re not surprised to see that biotech tops one investor’s list of “hypergrowth industries” to watch.
#1 hypergrowth industry: synthetic biology,a brand new sector that allows you to “program” biology, says Stephen McBride, Chief Analyst at RiskHedge, which focuses on disruption research.
“How does it work? In short, engineers design sequences of DNA on computers. Then they physically print out those sequences and insert them into living things. This can then add beneficial character traits to a living thing,” he explains.
And it has a variety of exciting applications—from sustaining agriculture and transforming the food system, to creating safe and sustainable hand sanitizers and even accelerating COVID-19 vaccine and diagnostic R&D.
And #2: genomics, including mapping and editing DNA, which can help us with detecting diseases faster and “making cures for certain diseases possible for the first time in history,” says McBride.
Beyond health care, gene editing is transforming food and agriculture, as we explained yesterday, making our food systems more sustainable, nutritious, and resilient.
What does success look like for these industries? “The success of the bioeconomy has to be measured by our ability to not only establish resilience but our ability to improve equity for all,” BIO’s Stephanie Batchelor said last month—by improving access to health care and nutritious food, cleaning up the air, and creating jobs.
Dive deeper: Dr. Jason Kelly, CEO and Co-Founder of Gingko Bioworks, recently joined the I AM BIO Podcast to discuss how his synthetic biology company helped Moderna develop its COVID-19 vaccine and the future of this technology. Listen at www.bio.org/podcast or your favorite podcast platform, including Apple, Google, or Spotify.