The Synthetic Biology Startup Ecosystem in the US

1. The Synthetic Biology Startup
Ecosystem in the US
David Rejeski
Global Fellow
Wilson Center
Washington, DC
1

2. The Platform Value Now project, funded
by Finland’s Strategic Research Council,
focuses on understanding fast emerging
platform ecosystems, their value creation
dynamics and requirements of the
supportive institutional environment.

3. Type 2 innovation platform: “consists of technological
building blocks that are used as a foundation on top of
which a large number of innovators can develop
complementary services or products.”
Synthetic Biology As An Innovation Platform
Synthetic biology is a maturing scientific discipline that
combines science and engineering in order to design
and build novel biological functions and systems. This
includes the design and construction of new biological
parts, devices, and systems.

4. Growth of Synthetic Biology Firms in the US
Data: Synbio Beta

5. Eric Schmidt Sam AltmanPeter Thiel Tim O’ReillyBill Gates
IT Investors Turned Synthetic Biology Investors
3-4 years ago: $10 million investments
Grew to: $30-40 million
Approaching: $80 million and above

6. “Synthetic-biology firms….have raised a record-breaking
US $560.7 million this year. 24 newly created synthetic-
biology companies have raised funding in 2015, compared to
fewer than 6 in 2012.” Nature, November 2015
1996 2006 2016

7. How Did This Happen?
Bottoms up (no national strategy)
Self organizing, open system
Champions with a powerful vision (engineering biology)
Trading zones/creating a common language
Education & workforce preparation
Community/network building
20 years (no quick fix)
Some luck

8. 1996
Woods Hole
Massachusetts
August,1996
2006 2016
36 participants:
DARPA
NSF
Harvard
Yale
MIT
U. Chicago
Stanford
Whitehead

9. First Distribution of Standardized Biological Parts
1996 2006 2016
Biobricks
London Science Museum
Synthetic Biology
Open Language

10. “Tired of Evolving? Make New Friends”
1996 2006 2016
Reshma Shetty
Now President
GingoBioworks

11. Woods Hole
Massachusetts
August, 2003
1996 2006 2016
34 participants:
DARPA
NSF
Harvard
Yale
MIT
Princeton
Stanford
Johns Hopkins
CalTech
Duke
Michigan
KEY CONCEPTS
1.Standardization
of components
2. Component
abstraction
3. Decoupling of
design and
fabrication

12. International Genetically
Engineered Machines
Competition
2004, National Science Foundation
funds teams from 6 universities
“Our goal was to kickstart a billion dollar industry.” Randy Rettberg
> 24,000 parts
Teams add >1,000
new parts per year
5,000 students annually, 300 teams, 150
judges, over 40 countries from 6 continents
2015
1996 2006 2016

13. SB1.0 and Beyond
1996 2006 2016
“We needed to create a cultural frame to operate…that is was
ok to practice research in this area.” Drew Endy, Stanford

14. "Two groups can agree on rules of exchange even if
they ascribe utterly different significance to the
objects being exchanged….In an even more
sophisticated way, cultures in interaction frequently
establish contact languages, systems of discourse
that can vary from the most function-specific jargons,
…..to full-fledged creoles"
Peter Galison,Harvard, Image and Logic
Synthetic Biology Became A Trading Zone
Semantic network
analysis
Web of Science

15. Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center - SynBERC
1996 2006 2016
“Our research program is creating the enabling
tools and technologies that will give rise to many
bio-based applications in the coming years.”
- $37.4 million
for 10 years
- $100 -150,000
per year for bi-
annual retreats

16. $45,000,000
$140,000,000
DARPA
Contract Research
National Science Foundation
Fundamental Research
Government Funding of Synthetic Biology Research
1996 2006 2016

17. The Network and Community Legacy
“You cannot create a technology alone. You need buy-in on the
part of thousands of people and you need redundant academic
programs and efforts in the industrial sector. The most important
thing we did was community building; creating an excited group of
students who understood the sector.” Tom Knight, MIT

18. The Idea Legacy: Design-Build-Test-Learn Cycle
DARPA
“These biofoundries operate at
rates approximately 100X over
the prior state of the art.”
Biotechnology & Bioengineering, 2015
“The DBT cycle was transformational…it is
driving the field.” Jack Newman

19. The Idea Legacy: Standardized Parts
http://igem.org/Registry

20. Educational Legacy

21. 2016

22. Firms and Clusters
Bay Area Boston
Zymergen
Amyris
Bolt Threads
Pixar Animation
Studios
The more open a place is to new ideas and new people — in other words, the
lower its entry barriers for human capital — the more talent it can capture.”
$

23. Time
Startup
Barriers
(Money,
Know-how)
Financing Ecosystems Lower Entry Barriers
Crowdfunded
Capital
Crowdfunded
Equity
Donor
Driven
Incubator/
Accelerator
Community
Lab

24. Community Bio Labs as Incubators
Will Canine takes a
biology course at
GenSpace
Raises $1
million to start

25. Novel Bio-
ProductionRapid Design and
Prototyping
Custom Organisms
Creating A New Bio-Production Ecosystem
Discovery Design-Build-Test Scale
D
A
R
P
Increase the rate
of discovery

26. Goal: Faster, cheaper, better DNA
2 cents/base pair for DNA (3Xs cheaper)
“Biology becomes a computer science field”

27. 2014: 5-7 times more experiments/person/day
2016 goal: 15-20 times more experiments
Primary customers: academics and startups
$25 million, two other rounds of funding
24hrs/7days

28. “We are a software company.”
Produce ‘drop-in’ biological-
based production that others take
to scale and to market
“Any product, any organism”
- Software group
- Factory operations
- Development (science and business)

29. “We….would like to fulfill a promise of innovation in a
space that hasn't seen innovation at a regular clip,”
CEO Dan Widmaier

30. The activity hub for the synthetic biology industry

31. Multiple entry points for engaging a growing global
community (iGEM, SynbioBeta, SB meetings)
Disaggregation of business ecosystems provide new
niches for value creation and startups
Educational materials/courses now exist to build and
attract next generation workforce
Lower barriers to entry and new funding opportunities
for start-ups
Opportunities
New skill ecosystems emerging at disciplinary
intersections between biology, computation, and robotics

32. Rachel Haurwitz,
President and
CEO, Caribou
Biosciences
Jason Kelly, Co-founder,
Ginko Bioworks
Jack Newman, Co-
founder, Zagaya,
Chief Science Officer,
Amyris
Emily Leproust,
Chief Executive
Officer, Twist
Biosciences
Dan Widmaier,
CEO and Co-
founder, Bolt
Threads
Patrick Westfall,
Zymergen
Thanks to:

33. Jay Keasling, Professor or
Chemical and Biomolecular
Engineering and Bioengineering,
University of California/Berkeley
Drew Endy, Associate
Professor of Bioengineering,
Stanford University
Pamela Silver, Professor
of Systems Biology,
Harvard Medical School
Kris Prather, Associate
Professor of Chemical
Engineering, MIT
Jim Haseloff, Head, Department
of Plant Sciences, University of
Cambridge
Adam Arkin, Professor of
Bioengineering, University of
California, Berkeley
Thanks to:
Partial listings

34. Thanks!
Discussion