Recently, OpenAI launched the latest large language model GPT-4. According to reports, this is a large-scale multi-modal model. Compared with the previous model GPT-3.5 used by ChatGPT, its text processing capacity has been expanded to 25,000 words, and it can also process image content. In the case where the user inputs text and images at the same time, text such as natural language and code can be generated

Artificial intelligence is one of the hot topics during this year’s National Two Sessions. For a long time, Chinese enterprises have continued to deploy in the field of artificial intelligence, and related technologies have greatly improved production efficiency in all aspects of social production. If the development of the information technology industry in the past is compared to the “manual age”, then the emergence of artificial intelligence technology will push the information technology industry into the “automation age”.

Artificial intelligence, machine learning, digitization, automation, and computational biology—these are what synthetic biology needs to succeed at the speed and scale of its development. Synthetic biology experiments are so rich in data that manually sifting through data and looking for trends is no longer effective. Hands-on experiments are no longer valid when robots can work faster, more accurately, and at any time without caffeine. ‍

Digital biology has taken such a leap forward that we can now predict the structure of every known protein, visualize biology in VR, share experimental protocols among robots around the world, and run entire laboratory. But digital creatures still have a long way to go, in terms of standardization, implementation, cost and accuracy.

What new innovations and discoveries are emerging?

Demis Hassabis and John Jumper of London-based DeepMind, which developed the AlphaFold artificial intelligence system, won this year’s $3 million Breakthrough Prize, the most lucrative award in science. The AlphaFold system is capable of predicting the 3D structure of nearly every known protein on Earth.

01

Sanofi is betting on the potential of artificial intelligence to transform drug development, recently signing a $1.2 billion biological research collaboration with San Francisco-based Atomwise.

Atomwise changes the mode of drug development from accidental discovery to structure-based search, making the drug development process more reasonable, effective and efficient. The AtomNet platform, combined with deep learning for structure-based drug design, enables rapid, AI-driven searches of Atomwise’s proprietary library of more than 3 trillion synthesizable compounds

.

02

AI-driven biology could get critical medicines to patients faster.

Absci, a synthetic biology company that went public in 21, is using an artificial intelligence-driven protein development and production platform to help pharmaceutical companies create drugs that were previously impossible to make.

The development of a new drug is a long process. According to the survey, the average development time of each non-tumor drug is 5.9-7.2 years, while the development time of tumor drugs is as high as 13.1 years. Determining the target molecule in advance is the basis for the development of modern new drugs. It is necessary to first determine the biological macromolecules that have pharmacological functions and can be affected by drugs in the body, and then design candidate drug sequences based on the target molecules.

Absci founder and CEO Sean McClain (centre) celebrates the company’s listing at the company’s bell ringing ceremony.

“Drug Candidate Sequence” from “Drug Target” at the click of a button is Absci’s vision. Absci integrates deep learning, artificial intelligence and synthetic biology technologies for protein drug development and target discovery.

03

Inscripta is reimagining what the synthetic biology company of the future will look like. As biomanufacturing transforms our economy, Inscripta will seize the opportunity to create a more efficient way to manufacture biological products.

Inscripta’s vision is to democratize scalable genome editing by providing a holistic platform consisting of software, instruments, reagents and consumables, thereby providing their customers with faster, easier and more cost-effective forward-looking engineering solutions .

The output of the Inscripta Onyx Genome Editing Platform is a cell bank of up to 10,000 unique edits that require picking large numbers of clones (eg, 1,000-10,000 clones) into a high-throughput microtiter plate screening workflow. This platform will greatly increase the speed and efficiency of gene editing.

The Inscripta team in Pleasanton, CA

04

Startup “cradle” lets you design custom proteins simply by typing in prompts. With two bases — one in Delft, the Netherlands, and one in Zurich, Switzerland — Cradle straddles the worlds of biology and artificial intelligence, a powerful fusion of technologies that has the potential to upend the way scientists design proteins.

A report by the McKinsey Global Institute predicts that 60 percent of everything humans consume could be produced using cellular factories. The challenge for biologists, however, is that building proteins is costly, slow, and requires trial and error. This is where Cradle comes into play.

Stef van Grieken, CEO and co-founder of Cradle, said: “You can think of cells as miniature factories and proteins as assembly lines and machines that enable them to make different end products. With the right tweaks, you can make things that can Proteins that produce a variety of new products more efficiently and with less environmental impact. Biologists can spend years using existing methods to find the right solution to any given problem.”

“By harnessing the power of machine learning, our platform can greatly speed up the design, construction, and scaling phases of bioengineered proteins, making it possible to create and scale synthetic biology projects faster and more economically. Our goal is to reduce biological The cost and time to bring a biobased product to market so that anyone – even ‘two kids in a factory’ – can bring a biobased product to market,” he added.

The cradle team at their base in the Netherlands

Sofia Dolfe, a partner who co-led the investment at Index Ventures, said: “Synthetic biology is still in its early stages, but its implications for humanity will grow exponentially. We believe this technology can change the way we produce almost everything , from food and pharmaceuticals to raw materials used in a variety of consumer products. The depth of expertise, focus, and speed of development of the Cradle team set them apart. They are ideally positioned to define a new category around programmable biology, creating the Design tools to precisely engineer proteins and dramatically improve the health of people and the planet.”

05

Can a desktop DNA printer wipe out the next pandemic?

Imagine being able to print DNA right on your desktop. What will this enable you to do? Telesis Bio hopes to bring the ability to write DNA to every laboratory with their desktop automated gene synthesis platform, the Digital-to-biological converter™.
Telesis Bio empowers scientists to create novel, synthetic biology-based solutions to many of humanity’s greatest challenges. As the inventor of the industry-standard Gibson Assembly method and the first commercially automated benchtop DNA and mRNA synthesis system, Telesis Bio is enabling the rapid, accurate and reproducible writing of DNA and mRNA for numerous downstream markets. The award-winning BioXp system consolidates, automates and optimizes the entire synthesis, cloning and amplification workflow. It delivers virtually error-free DNA and RNA synthesis at scale in days and hours rather than weeks or months.
Scientists around the world are using this technology in their own laboratories to accelerate the design-build-test paradigm of novel high-value products for precision medicine, biologics drug discovery, vaccine and therapeutic development, genome editing, and cell and Gene therapy.

 
06

The goal of many synthetic biology companies is to bioengineer microbes so that they can produce useful compounds. However, further fine-tuning of these bioengineered microbes to allow them to grow in large-scale bioreactors is key to commercializing these microbial products.

Culture Biosciences was founded in 2016 and is located in San Francisco. Its characteristic lies in the design of a set of remote real-time monitoring bioreactor. Coupled with extensive strain screening and process development capabilities, whether it is a small biotechnology company or a large pharmaceutical company, it can quickly move from laboratory scale to commercial production on its platform.

Culture Biosciences’ technology is designed to help synthetic biology companies more quickly complete the optimization process for large-scale biomanufacturing. The company’s tens of thousands of bioreactors are connected to a computer system through the cloud, allowing researchers to conduct hundreds of culture experiments at the same time, explore the best culture conditions and optimize the microorganisms.

Culture Lab Team

07

Drug production has a huge flaw. Synthetic biology startup Asimov raised $200 million in January to fix it. What is the holy grail of biology? The startup sees engineerable cells.

Asimov combined gene-edited mammalian cell lines with a computer-aided design platform called Kernel to address the challenges of high manufacturing costs, drug quality and scalability. With $200 million in new funding for their CAD platform, which programs genetic circuits, the manufacture of biotherapeutics is set to fundamentally change.

The four Asimov co-founders, from left to right. Doug Densmore, Alec Nielsen, Raja Srinivas and Chris Voigt.