The Business of the Bioeconomy: An Interview with Bloomberg Businessweek
The bioeconomy adds a new dimension to a wide range of industries. A 2020 report from McKinsey & Co estimated that the bioeconomy could have a direct economic impact of up to $4 trillion a year over the next 10 to 20 years.
Bloomberg Radio recently reached out to our President and CEO, Sri Kosaraju, to discuss the field’s potential and the role Inscripta is playing in the ‘Bio Revolution.’
As Sri explained to host Carol Massar, synthetic biology and the bioeconomy have a far-reaching impact on products we use every day: approximately 60% of the physical inputs to the economy could be biologically produced.
“Biology has played an important role in the last decade on discovery and the life sciences, and even in the production of therapeutics. However, the bioeconomy is larger than that. It affects many more industries beyond just healthcare,” Sri said.
Potential applications include agriculture, cosmetics, and materials, among others. There are opportunities in each of these sectors, with a focus on introducing more sustainable production methods that can fulfill the demands of the growing population and adapt to the changing world.
“There are many confluent catalysts that are accelerating the bioeconomy, including sustainability and climate change mitigation, as well as general efforts to improve the performance and efficiency of businesses and the products they produce,” Sri said.
What role will Inscripta play? The launch of Onyx™, the world’s first benchtop digital genome engineering platform, will enable researchers to realize the full potential of the bioeconomy, thanks to its unprecedented power and scale, Sri told Massar.
A gene editing experiment that may have taken a couple of PhD-level scientists many months can now be done in a matter of weeks, with up to 10,000 edits produced in a single run on the Onyx platform.
“It’s really opening the minds of many researchers that we speak to about what kind of work and research they could do with it,” Sri said. “Many of these folks are already utilizing CRISPR in some way, and they’re looking to make those experiments more efficient, but they are now also exploring what more they can do with a more powerful system and platform.”
Sri said the company is focused on making a long-term impact, rather than short-term gains. As one of the first players in the emerging field of bioeconomy, Inscripta’s vision is to drive the paradigm change and establish itself as the leader in providing tools to advance innovation in the space.