A NEW Look at Synthetic Biology |
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As the Coronavirus disrupts nearly every aspect of our daily lives, medical professionals are working around the clock to develop treatments and a vaccine that will allow us to defeat this disease. Although we're still months away from a vaccine available for mass distribution, we are moving at unprecedented speed to bring a solution to market thanks in part to synthetic biology -- a process that allows us to modify DNA and create new outcomes. But what really is synthetic biology and why is it important to the development of a vaccine? How can we use this type of technology in the future, and what are the economic and ethical questions that come with it?
To explore these questions, this week on the NEW Look podcast Rep. Gallagher is joined by Matt McKnight, Chief Commercial Officer at Ginkgo Bioworks. Matt isn’t just a good dude – he’s a Harvard Business School graduate that has been at the forefront of synthetic biology in the private sector for some time, and full of insight into how the field will not only be used to defeat this virus, but also to revolutionize the future. In addition to sharing his insights on synthetic biology, Matt also discusses some of his favorite books, his experience in the Marine Corps, and lessons he’s teaching his kids from home school. Watch the full interview by clicking HERE or the image above, or read some highlights from the conversation below.
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Why Synthetic Biology Matters |
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Matt McKnight: "Biology is everything around us. It's our bodies. It's the water. It's the air. It's the plant life. And we are now operating within that domain. COVID-19 just emphasizes that. It is a domain in which we have to think about operating differently because we have the technology transformation to be able to do it. COVID-19 is painful, but it's going to be solved. It's going to be solved by biotechnology and synthetic biology. The vaccines that are going to work likely -- knock on wood -- are synthetic biology designed vaccines that we've never used before. They're the ones in clinical trials right now."
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An Example of Synthetic Biology |
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Matt McKnight: "Have you had an impossible burger yet?"
Rep. Gallagher: "No, but I have heard about this. It's not meat, but tastes like meat."
Matt McKnight: "Right...So what is it? It is a totally plant based burger that tastes like a burger, bleeds like a burger, and when you bite into it you're like, that might be meat. What is the unique thing that they've done? Well, what they figured out was that heme -- the stuff that makes your blood red -- is the critical thing. When you're having a barbecue, you cook a burger and the blood heats up and gives it that flavor and that taste. Well, turns out that plants also have heme, just really tiny quantities of it...So they found this heme and figured out what the DNA code was, took that DNA code, and reprogrammed it into beer yeast basically. So beer yeast, you put it in a fermenter, feed it sugar, and the yeast reads its DNA program, takes the sugar, and turns it into alcohol. Well, they reprogrammed the beer yeast and put in the DNA program that codes for heme. Now the beer yeast eats sugar, reads the DNA program for heme, and brews plant blood...You put it into a food formulation...and now you've got a veggie burger with plant blood in it that cooks, and tastes, and feels like a real burger...So that is synthetic biology...The ability to read DNA, program cells with the DNA sequence that you want, and produce new novel products that are amazing for consumers. It's taking high school biology and figuring out how to make it an engineerable discipline by writing different programs of DNA code."
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How the United States Can Lead the World |
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Matt McKnight: "So if you think about what the implications are for the USA, what natural resources we have, it's not oil deposits anymore. It's not rare earth material deposits -- though those are both important. But we have 50 states that cover every piece of natural biodiversity on the planet. We should be sequencing the DNA of every living thing and putting it into a data repository so you can gain data advantage over anybody else trying to leverage biology for manufacturing purposes. And then you should make it open because that's how you set standards...The point is that we have this massive almost like oil field underneath where we sit in each of our states that is a natural resource that we should be mining to provide to all of the biological manufacturing capabilities that we have in the country."
Rep. Gallagher: "So in return for getting access to that massive repository of data...would we put ethical constraints on that access? Would we ask other countries or researchers from other countries to sign up to a code of conduct for how this data could be used?"
Matt McKnight: "Yeah...This is not so different than what we've done with the internet. Right? By becoming advanced in the internet, we got to set the standards and rules of openness. And just like you're saying, we would absolutely have the opportunity to say, in return for using this massive data set, here are the standards upon which we believe open societies need to use these technologies...And it creates a dynamic where 90% of the world, or 85% of the world is on Google...The same idea with data standards here around around this natural biodiversity. In making it available, you get the opportunity to, to set those set those rules.
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Matt McKnight: "One, the most valuable companies in the world in 25 years will be synthetic biology companies. Those companies need to be based here, just like Apple and Google and Amazon. Second, there's going to be an economic, geopolitical, and national security reset are after COVID. And people are going to recognize that one of our top priorities absolutely needs to be building a robust response to a world that is a very globally connected...Third, we ought to reset our education system and understanding of what our natural resources are in this country...We ought to be doing that at scale, getting people excited about going and leveraging the natural biodiversity of the country, just like we've done with our oil reserves, just like we've done with our mining reserves, just like we've done with our timber assets throughout periods of history over the last 150 to 200 years."
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De Pere
1702 Scheuring Rd., Ste. B
De Pere, WI 54115
www.gallagher.house.gov
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Washington, DC
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Washington, DC 20515
www.gallagher.house.gov
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