Microbe-engineering service: Companies can now purchase synthetic organisms

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  Quantumrun Foresight
• December 21, 2022

Insight summary

Synthetic biology deals with creating replacement organs and unique kinds of organisms. This innovation has led to biotech firms and startups offering the discovery of new microbes as a service, particularly for drug development and disease research. Other long-term implications of this service could include biodegradable components for electronics and more diverse organoids for drug testing.

Microbe-engineering service context

Biologists have discovered that some microbes are not just potentially lethal organisms but also beneficial to human health. These "probiotics"—live microorganisms that improve our health when consumed adequately—are mainly species of lactic acid bacteria already present in certain foods. Thanks to next-generation DNA sequencing tech, we're learning more about the microbes that call us home—and how important they are to our health.

Scientists are engineering microbes for therapy, creating new microbial strains, and targeting improvements of existing strains. To achieve these innovations, researchers mutate and follow the principles of synthetic biology. The new microbe species will be beyond what currently exists as a probiotic definition for food applications. Instead, the pharmaceutical industry may adopt them as "pharmabiotics" or "live biotherapeutic products," according to research published in Frontiers in Microbiology.

Many genetically engineered microbes have been explored for vaccination antigen delivery, but few have reached human clinical trials. Other potential uses for engineered microbes include treating autoimmune diseases, inflammation, cancer, infections, and metabolic disorders. Because of the usefulness of genetically engineered microbes, many biotech firms are exploring them beyond health and into various sectors, such as agriculture and materials sciences.

Disruptive impact

In 2021, US-based biotechnology startup Zymergen announced its plans to accelerate new product development in biopolymers and other materials for the electronics and consumer care sectors. According to co-founder Zach Serber, there is a material science renaissance because of the abundance of chemicals available through biology. With over 75,000 biomolecules at Zymergen's disposal, there is little overlap between what can be found in nature and what needs to be bought from commercial sources.

Zymergen's initial public offering in 2021 allowed it to raise USD $500 million, putting its value at approximately USD $3 billion. The company plans to launch new products through synthetic biology in five years or less at a tenth of the cost of traditional chemicals and materials. According to its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the estimated timeline for launching a product is approximately five years, costing USD $50 million.

Another area of research for genetically engineered microbes is in the chemical fertilizers space. In 2022, scientists conducted experiments to replace these pollutants with genetically engineered microbes. The researchers modified mutant strains of bacteria to colonize the roots of rice plants and deliver a steady stream of nitrogen to them. They could do so without waste by modulating the amount of ammonia the bacteria produced. 

The team suggests that, in the future, researchers may create bacteria specifically to meet the needs of crops. This development would reduce nitrogen runoff and eutrophication, a process that occurs when chemical wastes from the soil wash off into bodies of water. 

Implications of microbe-engineering services

Wider implications of microbe-engineering services may include: 

• Biopharma firms collaborating with biotech companies to fast-track drug development and testing.
• Established chemicals industry firms diversifying their operations by creating or investing in microbe-engineering startups to create microbes engineered to produce rare chemical compounds.
• Startups focusing on biomedical material development, such as sturdier, more flexible, biodegradable components for electronics.
• Advancements in gene editing and sequencing technology resulting in more expansive applications of genetically engineered components, such as living robots that can self-repair.
• More collaboration between research institutions and biopharma to discover new pathogens and vaccines.
• Diverse organoids and body-in-a-chip prototypes that can be used to study different diseases and genetic therapies.

Questions to consider

• How else do you think microbe engineering as a service will change medical research?
• What are the potential challenges of using genetically engineered materials?