<
https://www.statnews.com/2022/11/03/why-were-not-prepared-for-next-wave-of-biotech-innovation/>
"The first time I remember hearing the words “biology’s century,” it was a
sales pitch.
I was standing by the Long Island Sound in Sachem’s Head, Conn., in the shadow
of an 11-foot-tall granite Stonehenge replica built by Jonathan Rothberg, a
biotech entrepreneur, as he talked up his newest gadget, a tabletop DNA
sequencer. It was 2010.
Near his monument to the ancient past, Rothberg was conjuring a vision of the
future, one based on harnessing the power of biology and technology to
transform the world. The phrase he uttered wasn’t new, having been in
circulation since the Human Genome Project in the 1990s, and I’d been covering
biotech for a decade. But that was the moment the phrase sunk in. I added it to
my Twitter bio, where it has remained.
Over the next decade, I’d see even more amazing things. Genetically altered
white blood cells that can cure cancer. A gene therapy that gave sight to blind
children. Pills that wrench decades of life from a cancer death sentence or
ease the breathing of patients with cystic fibrosis. And, of course, not one
but several effective Covid-19 vaccines created only a year into a
once-in-a-century pandemic.
Here’s what “biology’s century” means to me: In the same way the 20th century
belonged to physics, the 21st is biological. But while physics in the 20th
century brought airplanes, personal computers, and posters of Albert Einstein,
it also meant the atom bomb and a complete transformation of the social order.
Now, we’re approaching a moment when changes in what we understand about
biology are every bit as exhilarating and terrifying.
We now sequence the genes of people, animals, plants and tumors routinely.
We’re starting to edit DNA, not only in individual cells but even inside living
people, as a treatment. Drug companies have created therapies for previously
unconquerable diseases from melanoma to spinal muscular atrophy. Artificial
intelligence, machine learning, and other computer tools aim to speed up the
process further.
So what’s the biological equivalent of the atom bomb? Sure, there are worries
that we’ll edit the wrong genes, or create biological inequality to mirror the
economic inequality we already have. But the biggest looming problem is that we
will simply become lost and confused as to what works and what doesn’t,
scuttling our own progress, wasting money, and missing opportunities to save
lives. That’s what happens when new technologies in biology outpace our ability
to assess them."
Via
Future Crunch issue 190:
https://futurecrunch.com/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
