Title: The biotechonomy (1.0)
Description: We are living a rapidly evolving life sciences revolution. It is based on the ability to identify, read, understand, and manipulate the four nucleotides that code for all life forms on the planet. These four base pairs form deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Over the past decade an increasing amount of scientists, labs, and computer centers throughout the world have chosen to produce, store, and use biodata. This can be in the form of full genomes, specific genes, parts of genes, single letter variations in gene code (SNPs), proteins, or a variety of other variations on organic molecule data. Bio-literacy is an essential first step in building a bio-based economy (biotechonomy). So far most academic research has focused on sequencing, understanding, and annotating genomes or parts thereof. There has been little focus on the customer. This leaves open a series of interesting questions like: Who is accessing and reading these tidal waves of data? What are they being used for? How might this usage pattern change industrial structures and national competitiveness? The Life Sciences Project at HBS has drafted a first, and quite rough, map of who is producing, storing, and using public bio data. We hope this draft will improve and become far more complete as the project evolves. As the project moves forward, we intend to include more data, include key private data providers, and expand the time periods analyzed.