Trends Identified
Preparations based on human cell cultivation products to stimulate regeneration processes
The use of preparations based on cell cultivations stimulating regeneration processes will make it possible to overcome diseases which were previously seen as incurable through the potential for a patient to reproduce their own cells or have cells introduced into the body. By varying the cell cultivation conditions (for example, by placing them in a hypoxic environment), it is possible to change the relationship of factors according to the required results (stimulating or suppressing angiogenesis, apoptosis and the proliferation of receptor cells).
2016
Russia 2030: science and technology foresight
Russia, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
Predictive policing
Example of Organizationsactive in the area: PredPol (US), ECM Universe (US).
2018
Table of disruptive technologies
Imperial College London
Predictive gene-based healthcare
Example of Organizationsactive in the area: Kite Pharma/Gilead Sciences (US), 2andMe (US), Phenogen Sciences (US), Regeneron (US), Veritas Genetics (US).
2018
Table of disruptive technologies
Imperial College London
Predictions for the future: eight in ten Americans think that custom organ transplants will be a reality in the next 50 years, but just one in five think that humans will control the weather
Americans envision a range of probable
outcomes when asked for their own predictions
about whether or not some “futuristic”
inventions might become reality in the next half-century. Eight in ten believe that people needing
organ transplants will have new organs custom-built for them in a laboratory, but an equal number believe that control of the weather will remain outside the reach of science. And on other issues for example, the ability of computers to create art rivaling that produced by humans—the public is much more evenly split.
2014
US views of technology and the future - science in the next 50 years
Pew Research Center
Predicting preemies
A simple blood test can predict if a pregnant woman is at risk of giving birth prematurely. Our genetic material lives mostly inside our cells. But small amounts of “cell-free” DNA and RNA also float in our blood, often released by dying cells. In pregnant women, that cell-free material is an alphabet soup of nucleic acids from the fetus, the placenta, and the mother. Stephen Quake, a bioengineer at Stanford, has found a way to use that to tackle one of medicine’s most intractable problems: the roughly one in 10 babies born prematurely. Free-floating DNA and RNA can yield information that previously required invasive ways of grabbing cells, such as taking a biopsy of a tumor or puncturing a pregnant woman’s belly to perform an amniocentesis. What’s changed is that it’s now easier to detect and sequence the small amounts of cell-free genetic material in the blood. In the last few years researchers have begun developing blood tests for cancer (by spotting the telltale DNA from tumor cells) and for prenatal screening of conditions like Down syndrome. The tests for these conditions rely on looking for genetic mutations in the DNA. RNA, on the other hand, is the molecule that regulates gene expression—how much of a protein is produced from a gene. By sequencing the free-floating RNA in the mother’s blood, Quake can spot fluctuations in the expression of seven genes that he singles out as associated with preterm birth. That lets him identify women likely to deliver too early. Once alerted, doctors can take measures to stave off an early birth and give the child a better chance of survival. The technology behind the blood test, Quake says, is quick, easy, and less than $10 a measurement. He and his collaborators have launched a startup, Akna Dx, to commercialize it. —Bonnie Rochman
2019
10 Breakthrough Technologies 2019 - How we’ll invent the future, by Bill Gates
MIT Technology Review
Predictable Disruption
Every business now understands the transformational power of digital. What few, though, have grasped is quite how dramatic and ongoing the changes arising from new platformbased ecosystems will be. It’s not just business models that will be turned on their heads. As these ecosystems produce powerful, predictable disruption, whole industries and economic segments will be utterly redefined and reinvented.
2016
Accenture Technology Vision 2016
Accenture
Precision farming
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is providing farmers with a new set of tools to boost crop yield and quality while reducing water and chemical use. Sensors, robots, GPS, mapping tools and data-analytics software are all being used to customize the care that plants need. While the prospect of using drones to capture plant health in real time may be some way off for most of the world’s farmers, low-tech techniques are coming online too. Salah Sukkarieh, of the University of Sydney, for instance, has demonstrated a streamlined, low-cost monitoring system in Indonesia that relies on solar power and cell phones.
2017
These are the top 10 emerging technologies of 2017
World Economic Forum (WEF)
Precision Extinction
AI-piloted drone ships wipe out a large proportion of global fish stocks
2018
The Global Risks Report 2018
World Economic Forum (WEF)