On April 28, 2022, under the guidance of the Guangming branch of Shenzhen Administration for Market Regulation, the “Major Scientific and Technological Infrastructure of Synthetic Biology - Whole Chain Scientific Innovation Layout Sharing Session” was co-held at the Shenzhen Industrial Innovation Center of Engineering Biology by SIAT University (tentative name), SIAT, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology and Shenzhen Synthetic Biology Association.
Figure 1 The sharing session
The sharing session focused on the construction objectives and contents of major scientific and technological infrastructure (hereinafter referred to as the infrastructure), construction and technological services, the intellectual property trend of synthetic biology industry and synthetic biology infrastructure, brand construction and IP layout of synthetic biology competition, with an aim to promote the deployment and protection of intellectual property rights in synthetic biology, promote scientific and technological innovation across the industrial chain, accelerate the “output” of synthetic biology infrastructure, boost the development and cluster construction of the synthetic biology industry. Taking innovation as the dominant strategy of urban development and promoting the construction of a comprehensive national science center in the Greater Bay Area, it aims to contribute the strength of Shenzhen to achieving a high level of scientific and technological self-reliance.
Experts were invited to share insights based on their respective fields, such as Yuan Hai, senior engineer of Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology of Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as SIAT), deputy director of the Synthetic Biology Institute and general manager of Synthetic Biology Infrastructure, Zhang Bingzhao, senior engineer of SIAT and director of the Laboratory Management and Technology Office of the Synthetic Biology Institute of SIAT, Luo Wei, senior engineer of SIAT and director of the Industrial Innovation Center of the Synthetic Biology Institute of SIAT, Chen Fang, a researcher with the Chengdu Literature and Intelligence Center of Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the Strategic Intelligence Department, Yi Xiao, a researcher with the Synthetic Biology Institute of SIAT. An audience of thousands of people participated in the event online and offline, witnessing the grand event together.
At the sharing session, Yuan Hai introduced the construction objectives, content and progress of synthetic biology infrastructure in detail, emphasizing that the infrastructure were oriented to both science and market. He mentioned that synthetic biology was to synthesize organisms with engineering methods. The synthetic biology infrastructure introduced the concept of intelligent manufacture in the development of automation industry into the synthetic biology research, which was a technological base and an important way to cope with the lack of rational design in the field of synthetic biology, seek scientific breakthroughs, and solve the major problems faced by the development of society, economy, science and technology.
Figure 2 Scientific innovation of synthetic biology infrastructure throughout the industrial chain
Zhang Bingzhao introduced the main scientific and technological services provided by each sub-platform of the synthetic testing platform and user testing platform of synthetic biology infrastructure. The synthetic biology infrastructure will fully cooperate with the public technology platform of Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, focus on the main line of synthetic biology science and industrial development, and provide users with high-throughput, automated and one-stop scientific and technological support services, and facilitate the “output” of synthetic biology infrastructure.
In introducing the trend of synthetic biology industry, Luo Wei mentioned that synthetic biology flourished today after a decade of development, which had gone beyond its early research and development level, and slowly infiltrated into all aspects of people’s life. Shenzhen Industrial Innovation Center of Engineering Biology initiated the mode of “upstairs and downstairs innovation and entrepreneurship complex” in China to set up a bridge between technology and industry. It is believed that in the near future, the synthetic biology industry will usher in a fierce competition.
Other than docking with the source of innovation, the Innovation Center also attracts start-ups with core competitiveness, provides a high-quality entrepreneurial environment, builds open and sharing office space and a high-end experimental technology platform, creating “move-in condition” for the enterprises.
Chen Fang introduced the trend of synthetic biology research and intellectual property of infrastructure, and took the patent and industrial layout of Zymergen and Gingko Bioworks as an example to explain that the intellectual property protection and layout of synthetic biology infrastructure was imperative. In addition, Chen mentioned that they would cooperate with the synthetic biology team of SIAT to carry out a series of patent navigation and deployment around the infrastructure.
Yi Xiao made a wonderful share on the IP layout in the synthetic biology competition under preparation. He mentioned that synthetic biology competition focused on synthetic biology innovation and application, which was committed to linking up the channels of production, academy, research, innovation and investment in the field of synthetic biology in China, gathering related students and researchers, connecting all participants upstream and downstream the industrial chain such as universities, enterprises, capital, government, industrial parks, media, and databases, so as to form a closed loop for the innovation ecosystem of synthetic biology in China, support the realization of innovative ideas and drive the innovation at the source with industrial demands.
Figure 3 A scene of the sharing session
Synthetic biology and its industry
On the basis of systems biology, synthetic biology integrates engineering research paradigm, rearranges and transforms natural systems, designs and synthesizes new biological systems, so as to reveal the law of life and build a new generation of biological engineering system, which is hailed as a “key” to understanding life and a disruptive technology to change the future. Through the concept of “creation for knowledge and use” and the convergence of disciplines, synthetic biology has realized the systematic editing of gene networks, providing a new research paradigm for life science and upgrading the biotechnology.
Synthetic biology is a typical cutting-edge inter-discipline, with a wide application prospect in such fields as industry, medicine, agriculture, food, materials, environment and ocean. On the one hand, synthetic biology promotes the high-quality and efficient development of the biological industry, which plays a core role in revitalizing the biological economy. The The 2020 McKinsey Research report predicted that synthetic biology would achieve a direct economic output of 2 - 4 trillion US dollars over the next 10-20 years. For example, the bioeconomy in the United States is currently about 1 trillion US dollars, accounting for 5% of its GDP. In ten years, synthetic biology will grow to account for 10% of GDP, and the bioeconomy will become a real pillar industry offering a lot of jobs. This fully shows the pivotal role of synthetic biology in the biological industry and economy in the future. On the other hand, synthetic biology plays an important role in protecting our health, responding to public health emergencies and climate changes, restoring the environment and maintaining biodiversity, and providing solutions to pressing and sustainable development issues of the world. According to the latest report of SynBioBeta, synthetic biology companies raised nearly 18 billion US dollars in venture capital in 2021, making it the best investment year for synthetic biology startups. The amount of capital raised in 2021 was almost the total amount of the previous years since the sector emerged in 2009. Among them, the funds raised in fields of application such as food, pharmaceuticals and chemicals accounted for about 75% of the total.
Synthetic Biology Infrastructure
Major scientific and technological infrastructure is a complex scientific research system for exploring the unknown world, discovering laws of the nature and achieving technological changes. It is the technological basis and important means for breaking through the frontiers of science and solving economic and social development issues and major scientific and technological challenges. Relying on major scientific and technological infrastructure, on the one hand, we can explore major scientific issues faced by humankind; on the other hand, we can focus on national or local strategic demands. Internationally, the construction of infrastructure in the Western countries has formed a relatively systematic layout and a cluster development mode, which has not only brought major scientific breakthroughs, but also greatly promoted the development of industry and economy.
In the outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan of Shenzhen City, it is clearly proposed that it should be taken as a main position to promote the construction of a comprehensive national science center, focusing on the fields of information science, life science and new materials science, and deploying the major scientific and technological infrastructure in a concentrated manner based on the Guangming Science City... for the integrated construction of an interdisciplinary research platform and an industrial innovation center, the deployment of the Guangming International Technology Transfer Center, and the building of a world-class comprehensive national science center’s centralized supporting area. In May 2017, Shenzhen issued the Construction and Implementation Plan of Ten Major Scientific and Technological Infrastructure Projects in Shenzhen, which stated that a number of major scientific and technological infrastructure projects would be planned and deployed. As one of the key projects launched and deployed in priority by Shenzhen Guangming Science City, the synthetic biology infrastructure was led by the SIAT, with a total investment of about 2 billion RMB, and a total investment of hardware and software equipment at 722.2 million RMB. The synthetic biology infrastructure was expected to settle in the Guangming Life Science Park (the start-up area of Guangming Science City) by the end of 2022 to carry out large-scale equipment construction, debugging and software research and development, and gradually proceed with the acceptance test and trial operation of each system. After the completion of the infrastructure, it will become the first large-scale synthetic biology infrastructure with independent intellectual property rights in China.
As a public platform supporting basic science and interdisciplinary research, the infrastructure is an important “tool” for making core breakthroughs in science and technology. Relying on the synthetic biology infrastructure, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology has established an efficient transformation mechanism for the “output” of scientific and technological achievements, and built an “upstairs and downstairs innovation and entrepreneurship complex”. The researchers “at the upstairs” make use of the infrastructure to carry out original innovation activities, while the entrepreneurs “at the downstairs” carry out engineering technology development and pilot-scale transformation of the original innovation, greatly shortening the period from original innovation to industrial transformation.
Navigation and layout of intellectual property rights in synthetic biology
Innovation is the primary driving force for development, so protecting intellectual property rights is equivalent to protecting innovation. The high-quality development of synthetic biology industry is inseparable from the comprehensive deployment and protection of intellectual property rights. The intellectual property protection system is committed to protecting the intellectual property of the right holders in the fields of science, technology and culture. It can not only provide timely and comprehensive protection for the intellectual achievements and legal rights of the right holders, but also arouse their enthusiasm in research and literary and artistic creation, stimulate their creative initiative, and promote the optimal allocation of social resources. In the 14th Five-Year Plan of China and 2035 Vision Outline, it clearly states: we should implement the strategy of an intellectual property power, adopt a strict intellectual property protection system, improve the relevant laws and regulations, speed up intellectual property legislation in new fields and new forms of business; optimize the patent subsidy and reward policy as well as the assessment and evaluation mechanism, better protect and encourage high-value patents, cultivate patent intensive industries; build public service platforms for intellectual property protection and application; support Guangdong and Hong Kong to solidify their competitiveness and support Hong Kong to build a regional intellectual property trade center, and boost the appropriately diversified economic development.
As a typical strategic emerging industry, synthetic biology will bring great economic and social values. Relying on the excellent innovation resources of Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, the synthetic biology infrastructure aims to open up the integrated innovation path from original innovation to the transfer and transformation of achievements, and build a synthetic biology innovation and exchange platform with a global influence, which will become one of the major practices of industrial transformation. On the occasion of the 22nd “World Intellectual Property Day”, the guests attending the event introduced and shared their experience in intellectual property protection and predicted the trend of synthetic biology industry in Shenzhen, focusing on such aspects as synthetic biology infrastructure’s intellectual property, development of synthetic biology industry, and the IP layout of synthetic biology competition, which was of profound significance for enhancing the scientific and technological workers’ awareness in the intellectual property deployment and protection and actively promoting the strategy of an intellectual property power. High-quality and efficient creation and application of intellectual property is the only way to promote scientific and technological innovation. Around the development of synthetic biology and the construction and operation of synthetic biology infrastructure, it is of important practical significance to establish a comprehensive intellectual property layout and protection mechanism, build an innovation ecosystem throughout the industrial chain, and create a highland of innovation clusters.