Trends Identified
Single-Cell DNA Sequencing
“In our body we have millions of normal cells and then we have the ones that aren’t normal,” Kocher says. “And if you don’t sequence the abnormal ones, you don’t know about the problems. So this notion of being able to do single cells versus just the average of when they break up all the cells in the blood, is an important nuance. That’s going to become an important clinical tool in the future. Today we’re just testing average DNA sequences, so you miss stuff.”
2018
The Most Important Tech Trends Of 2018, According To Top VCs
Fast Company
Genetics Technologies For Healthcare
“There is absolutely a trend over the next 5 to 10 more years toward more personalized, more data-based, more genetic-based, information being included in your interactions with your provider, whether on a generalized basis or in response to specific disease issues,” Roberts says. “Cancer is one that’s very prominent but there will be other ones that come along, and over time we’ll build up those disease-specific ones into a more holistic look at clinically relevant genetics for patients to talk to their doctors about.” He adds that “the long pole in that tent is actually going to be discoveries in biology to allow us to make those associations [between genetic markers and reactions in the body] well. The puck is not going to be on the DNA sequencing or genetic side of things, it’s going to be ‘OK, what do I do with this knowledge?”
2018
The Most Important Tech Trends Of 2018, According To Top VCs
Fast Company
Synthetic Biology In Consumer Products
“One of the unsung heroes of synthetic biology is detergents for washing clothes, which now work well at all different temperatures,” Handelsman says. “You can now use very hot water and still get bright whites. That’s because of all the amazing enzymes that have been evolved and engineered. People are also talking about changing photosynthetic pathways in rice. So the rice loses its resistance to cold but it gains 20% in metabolic efficiency. Given global warming, that might be a good trade-off.”
2018
The Most Important Tech Trends Of 2018, According To Top VCs
Fast Company
Mixed Reality
Clearly, there’s interest in this area, as expressed by the $1.9 billion invested in Magic Leap. But Evans is less inspired by the idea of augmenting our existing world–like digital recipes we can see when we’re at the stove–and more by wearable devices that can see and interpret, what’s going on around us. If such a computer could you who people in front of you are, when you last met them, and how they fit into your life or business, that would be exciting. So would it being able to tell you instantly if a product you’re holding at a store is available cheaper online.
2018
The Most Important Tech Trends Of 2018, According To Top VCs
Fast Company
Cryptocurrency
Bitcoin may get all the ink, but there are plenty of other cryptocurrencies, and more to come. Evans says that the way they enable distributed value storage without needing central authority is valuable at a time when people have lost faith in institutions and seek more control over money without governmental intrusion.
2018
The Most Important Tech Trends Of 2018, According To Top VCs
Fast Company
Computational Biomedicine
“You hear we’re looking for a cure to cancer, but there will never be a single medicine to cure cancer,” Pande says. “But we already have many drugs for cancer. The problem is people get them too late. You don’t wait until your house is half burned down before you call the fire department.” The answer is technologies that can detect cancer much earlier than ever–at high accuracy and low cost–in a reproducible way. “My vision for cancer is it becomes very boring and routine, like going to the dentist,” Pande says.
2018
The Most Important Tech Trends Of 2018, According To Top VCs
Fast Company
New Bio-Utilities
If new technologies made fruits or vegetables last up to three times longer, Pande says, farmers could pick tomatoes at peak ripeness and they’d still taste great when they landed in a supermarket. “You could ship fruits and vegetables to new markets, or to the third world. It’s only possible due to this engineering approach,” he adds.
2018
The Most Important Tech Trends Of 2018, According To Top VCs
Fast Company
Healthcare Delivery Optimization
In 2018, “I think concerns about disruptive change [related to healthcare] coming from Washington are going to be totally diminished, so people are going to be calmer in the delivery system.” Kocher says. “Health care providers will turn their attention to increasing profitability instead of bracing for large structural changes. And rather than raising prices, they’ll focus on efficiency. Kocher says his firm will continue looking for digital health companies with novel ways to reduce costs and improve outcomes. “We continue to look at things that take economic responsibility for the cost and outcomes of care, and use technology and data to make both of those better and more efficient.”
2018
The Most Important Tech Trends Of 2018, According To Top VCs
Fast Company
Ambient Voice In New Places
Bernard, who invests Amazon’s own money in startups that leverage the Alexa and Echo ecosystem, says that “while voice services started in the home and will continue to grow there, we’re beginning to see this technology move beyond the home and into new on-the-go environments–in the car, the enterprise, in the gym or on a run, and numerous other mobile scenarios. We see this is a key factor that will make interacting with voice services a truly pervasive daily habit, and we expect to see different device concepts emerge that address the unique requirements of each usage scenario.”
2018
The Most Important Tech Trends Of 2018, According To Top VCs
Fast Company
Energy Efficiency Software
Software to conserve energy usage is “inherently a real estate technology for no other reason than that real estate consumes two-thirds of the U.S. electricity market,” says Wallace, whose firm focuses on investments in startups that tackle “built world” opportunities. “When you think about saving electricity, the most obvious place to look is buildings.”
2018
The Most Important Tech Trends Of 2018, According To Top VCs
Fast Company