Trends Identified
Synthetic biology
Scientific advances in synthetic biology are expected to provide the foundations for realising the full innovation potential of biotechnology in contained-use applications, mainly in health and industrial biotechnology applications. It will provide innovative solutions for the conversion of our current unsustainable fossil-based industries into sustainable and competitive bio-based industries for bioproducts (e.g. chemicals, polymers) and bioenergy, for new antibiotics and vaccines, and new diagnostics and treatments for cancer and rare diseases. At the same time, one has to take note of the ongoing debate regarding the scientific and legal definition of what synthetic biology comprises and of the discussions concerning potential risks and benefits of synthetic biology in terms of the environment, consumer health and biological diversity.
2015
Preparing the Commission for future opportunities - Foresight network fiches 2030
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Synthetic biology
Synthetic biology is a new field of research in biotechnology that draws on engineering principles to manipulate DNA in organisms. It allows for the design and construction of new biological parts and the re-design of natural biological systems for useful purposes. It is expected to have a wide range of applications in health, agriculture, industry and energy, but it also raises major legal and ethical issues.
2016
OECD Science, Technology and Innovation Outlook 2016
OECD
Synthetic biology and metabolic engineering
The natural world is a testament to the vast potential inherent in the genetic code at the core of all living organisms. Rapid advances in synthetic biology and metabolic engineering are allowing biologists and engineers to tap into this potential in unprecedented ways, enabling the development of new biological processes and organisms that are designed to serve specific purposes – whether converting biomass to chemicals, fuels and materials, producing new therapeutic drugs or protecting the body against harm.
2012
The top 10 emerging technologies for 2012
World Economic Forum (WEF)
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
Synthetic realities
There’s a new kind of reality on the block. Generated and mixed realities are blurring the boundaries of “truth” and challenging how we value it. As synthetic realities become more normalized in 2019, organizations should look past the drama and fear associated with them. Instead, they should hone new strategies to capitalize on their creative potential and manage the risk of unwittingly being featured in a synthetic reality created by someone else.
2019
Fjord trends 2019
Fjord
System approaches
The complexities of today’s problems require systemic change rather than simple, incremental responses. Technology, environmental challenges and citizens’ dissatisfaction with “business as usual” are all putting pressure on governments to change their working methods and reach beyond simple solutions and linear equations of cause and effect. This marks an innovative paradigm shift in governance. Rather than layering interventions on top of one another, the public sector should repack policies in ways that allow them to get to the real purpose of change and deliver value to citizens. Human wants, needs and desires are complex, and the systems created to satisfy them are even more so. If simple models are used to analyse them, they will produce simple answers. As human lives and the problems that affect them are intertwined, innovative working methods are needed that take this complexity into account and provide solutions that actually work. One way to address these challenges is to apply a more systemic approach to innovation.
2018
Embracing Innovation in Government: Global Trends 2018
OECD
System of Global Economic Governance
The contemporary global economy bears little resemblance to the fragmented post-World War II period when the current global economic governance regime was constructed. Although institutions created 60 years ago have adapted, the IMF and the World Bank are struggling to become representative and to remain relevant. Efforts to develop global institutions that are structured, funded, and empowered to act as a stabilising force for international financial markets will continue.
2010
Global strategic trends - out to 2040
UK, Ministry of Defence
System-based Technology for Particulate Matter Control
(Definition) Measures, classifies, samples, purifies, predicts, and monitors PM10 in the atmosphere to allow people to engage in daily activities safely. (Application) Particulate matter prediction and monitoring alert system; portable guide programs for Particulate matter measurement and management; particulate matter removal (purification) system for indoor environments.
2016
KISTEP 10 Emerging Technologies 2016
South Korea, Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP)
Systems biology and computational modelling/simulation of chemical and biological systems
For improved healthcare and bio-based manufacturing, it is essential to understand how biology and chemistry work together. Systems biology and computational modelling and simulation are playing increasingly important roles in designing therapeutics, materials and processes that are highly efficient in achieving their design goals, while minimally impacting on human health and the environment.
2012
The top 10 emerging technologies for 2012
World Economic Forum (WEF)
Systems Metabolic Engineering
Trace the products we buy and use every day—from plastics and fabrics to cosmetics and fuels—back to their origins, and you’ll find that the vast majority were made using stuff that came from deep underground. The factories that make the products of modern life do so, by and large, out of chemicals of various kinds. And those chemicals come from plants powered primarily by fossil fuels that transform feedstocks—also mainly petrochemicals—into myriad other compounds. It would be much better for the climate, and possibly better for the global economy as well, to make many of the chemical inputs to industry from living organisms instead of from oil, gas, and coal. We already use agricultural products in this way, of course—we wear cotton clothes and live in wooden houses—but plants are not the only source of ingredients. Microbes arguably offer even more potential, in the long term, to make inexpensive materials in the incredible variety of properties that we now take for granted. Rather than digging the raw materials of modern life from the ground, we can instead “brew” them in giant bioreactors filled with living microorganisms. For bio-based chemical production to really take off, it must compete with conventional chemical production on both price and performance. This goal now seems within reach, thanks to advances in systems metabolic engineering, a discipline that tweaks the biochemistry of microbes so that more of their energy and resources go into synthesizing useful chemical products. Sometimes the tweaks involve changing the genetic makeup of the organism, and sometimes it involves more complex engineering of microbial metabolism and brewing conditions as a system. With recent advances in synthetic biology, systems biology, and evolutionary engineering, metabolic engineers are now able to create biological systems that manufacture chemicals that are hard to produce by conventional means (and thus expensive). In one recent successful demonstration, microbes were customized to make PLGA [poly(lactate-co-glycolate)], an implantable, biodegradable polymer used in surgical sutures, implants, and prosthetics, as well as in drug delivery materials for cancer and infections. Systems metabolic engineering has also been used to create strains of yeast that make opioids for pain treatment. These drugs are widely needed in the world, and in particular in the developing world, where pain is insufficiently managed today. The range of chemicals that can be made using metabolic engineering is widening every year. Although the technique is not likely to replicate all of the products currently made from petrochemicals, it is likely to yield novel chemicals that could never be made affordably from fossil fuels—in particular, complex organic compounds that currently are very expensive because they must be extracted from plants or animals that make them in only tiny amounts. Unlike fossil fuels, chemicals made from microbes are indefinitely renewable and emit relatively little greenhouse gas—indeed, some could potentially even serve to reverse the flow of carbon from Earth to atmosphere by absorbing carbon dioxide or methane and incorporating it into products that are eventually buried as solid waste. As biochemical production scales up to large industrial use, it will be important to avoid both competing with food production for land use and also accidental releases of engineered microorganisms into the environment. Although these highly engineered microbes will likely be at a great disadvantage in the wild, it’s best to keep them safely in their tanks, happily working away at making useful stuff for the benefit of humanity and the environment.
2016
Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2016
World Economic Forum (WEF)