Jul 14, 2022
Synthetic biology has established itself as a vital component of the life science industry in recent years. Combining principles of engineering with molecular biology, synthetic biology has achieved immense worldwide success. So much so, that by 2026, the market is expected to achieve a compound annual growth rate of more than 28% by 2026.
This will see the market exceed $33 billion at the end of the forecast period, which exposes a whole host of opportunities for investment in the meantime, as synthetic biology continues to push the technological envelope for everything – from advanced biofuels and agriculture, to pharmaceuticals and healthcare.
As the list of new products and applications continue to grow, opportunities across DNA reading, writing and editing, synthetic biologic parts and production systems – as well as end applications across healthcare, chemicals, energy, consumer products, food and beverages and more – are expected to see a surge in activity, R&D and investment.
“The potential for long-term future applications is absolutely colossal,” says Dr. Helia Jalili, Director of Advanced Materials and Technology at BCC Research. “But synthetic biology is already here, and major opportunities are happening right now. We’re seeing a significant number of near-term commercial gains, and the list of new products and applications continues to growth on an almost daily basis.”
It seems the verdict is in: it is a highly beneficial time for companies to be involved in the synthetic biology sector.
Looking to the main end-user applications of the synthetic biology industry and healthcare is leading the charge. In fact, BCC research estimated that this segment was worth around $2.7 billion in 2020, with research and industrial chemicals taking second and third position respectively.
However, many other niches are flourishing. Consumer products, food and beverage, as well as agriculture are all industries gearing up to make a positive and lasting impact on the growth curve.
Unlike genetic engineering, which combines mostly natural components of a cell with one or modified genes, synthetic biology is an emerging field that uses standardized DNA building blocks to create value-added products with advanced functionality to produce end products. In other words, it takes a greater leap into artificial components and systems, enabling the insertion of multiple genes that are designed to work together.
These synthetic genetic circuits allow scientists to simultaneously coordinate multiple cellular processes. In biofuels, for example, metabolic pathways for cellulose digestion aod for hydrocarbon fuel production are combined in a single microorganism, allowing it to breakdown cellulose and produce ethanol.
As a scientific study, synthetic biology can be likened to computer programming. Computers use binary code to trigger gates and transistors. Cells use codes too: adenine, thymidine, cytosine and guanine, to trigger biochemical reactions – this is partly why synthetic biology I son the leading edge of a transformation that brings biology and information sciences together.
The synthetic biology industry as at the cusp of a rapid growth upsurge that will continue to accelerate across the forecast period. While the penetration rate of the market is still modest, many of the applications already in existence have a large addressable market.
Combined with the development of increasingly sophisticated technologies acting as a growth catalyst, BCC Research advise you to watch out for the rise of ultra-high-throughput screening platforms for organism design, enzymatic DNA synthesis and novel gene-editing platforms. The combination of these factors, with the focus on value-added products, that place less emphasis on cost-sensitive, commodity products, positions the synthetic biology industry in a potentially stratospheric position.
To find out more about the synthetic biology market, click here to purchase the report or download a complimentary report overview.
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