Bioeconomy 1.0

Marc Salit, Leader, Genome-Scale Measurements Group, MML

U.S. Bioeconomy in 2012 estimated at $350 billion

– about 2.5% of GDP

– global revenues from biologics reached $125 billion. 

– U.S. industrial biotech (fuels, enzymes, materials) 

reached at least $125 billion. 

Rob Carlson, Biodesic at ACS Capitol Hill Briefing and 

http://www.synthesis.cc/cgi-bin/mt/mt-t.cgi/392

Estimated size of total semiconductor sales in 2012: 

$291.6 billion

Semiconductor Industry Association
Bioeconomy 2.0

iGEM 2014 at the Hynes Convention Center
1st Wave: Vertically integrated 

Synthetic Biology

contained, idiosyncratic ecosystems


Driving the 2nd Wave

NIST Work will be foundational

• DNA R/W scaling...

– Usually, it’s only “Pick 2”

 Good

 Fast

 Cheap

• Advancing technology

– distributed fabrication

– research leading to de facto design, 

construction standards

– scaling complexity

• Standards will enable...

– predictability

– distribution of labor

– abstraction

– specialization

– interoperability

– reliability

• Metrology will enable...

– reproducibility

– technology development

• Platform technology businesses 

emerging

– Gingko Bioworks

– Zymergen

– Teselagen

– Benchling

– Genome Compiler

– Transcriptic

– Emerald Cloud Labs

– Riffyn

– ...

• Commerce, driven by business- to-business transactions
Synthetic Biology Standards Consortium

Scaling capacity to engineer biology

Products

Reference Materials

Reference Data

Documentary Standards

Protocols

Industry Roadmap

Technical 

Working 

Groups

Professional 

Product 

Development

Safe Harbor for 

Collaborative 

Work

Consortium

Needs focused

Industry driven

Public-Private-Academic

Global

Voluntary
Convene the stakeholders

Establish consortium to conduct 

metrology product development

• Kickoff meeting 3/31, establishing 

terms-of-reference for multiple 

working groups across technical 

domains

Automation and Protocol 

Interoperability

• minimum-information standards 

protocol exchange, reproducibility, 

automation

Flow Cytometry

• methods for comparability of results 

across space, time, and multiple 

channels

Digital Biological Information

• reproducibility of designs via 

standard representation, exchange of 

digital information

Performance Metrics for Engineered 

Strains

• reference objects and methods for 

standard strain characterization and 

validation

Measurements for Regulated 

Applications

• inventory existing measurement 

resources, propose research agenda

DNA Construction

• standards describing DNA synthesis, 

assembly, validation for frictionless 

transition between DNA design, 

build, test, deployment
New initiatives to embrace 

industry-wide standards

...the push is growing for standards... On 

March 31, the U.S. National Institute of 

Standards and Technology (NIST) 

convened a working group at Stanford 

University to launch the Synthetic Biology 

Standards Consortium. 

This embrace of industry-wide standards 

could be a huge step forward for the 

synthetic biology industry, which is still 

only in its infancy. Industry standards are 

a cornerstone of any technology industry, 

and getting major companies such as 

Dow, DuPont, Lockheed Martin and 

Novartis – all participants of the 

consortium – onboard is a positive step.
Emerging Technology: Unknowns

• Institution-based 

oversight framework 

struggling to adapt

– current framework 

ill-fit for purpose

• Social assent uncertain

• Distributed or 

centralized innovation?

• Distributed or 

centralized production?

• Real technical 

challenges to Synthetic 

Biology at scale

– engineering living matter 

is different than 

engineering inanimate 

matter