Long before they were making Covid-19 vaccines, both Moderna and BioNTech were researching just that.
Using mRNA, scientists could instruct the body to build up its immunological defenses to find and kill cancers. These vaccines for Covid-19 are just the first of many wonders that tomorrow's bioeconomy will create.ĭepending on where you stand, these synthetic realities land somewhere between “really exciting” and “gravely concerning.” Such vaccines would potentially be safer and easier to control, because unlike gene therapies, which can lead to permanent or even inherited genetic changes, mRNA only exists in our cells ephemerally, like a disappearing Instagram story. The mRNA is then (metaphorically) ejected, and the cells produce certain components of the coronavirus in order to kick-start the immune system.
Once these biological drives are inserted into cells, those cells dutifully download mRNA instructions, translating a string of letters into a protein.
In effect, Moderna and BioNTech are crafting genetic instructions that can be written like software and packaged into the equivalents of nanoscopic USB drives. This approach-using synthetic RNA-is far more effective and adaptable than long-standing vaccine protocols. Lab-manufactured mRNA delivers a set of instructions to cells that help them thwart the virus's attack. We've already had a glimpse of one, in the form of messenger RNA, found in the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines. This level of control unlocks huge new opportunities. These variants are now considered by some to be a new branch on the tree of life-one where humans redesign and shape novel species. It still has fewer than 500 genes, but it behaves more like a normal cell.
They remixed the code once again, and in March 2021 announced a new variant, JCVI-syn3A. Scientists came to believe that they'd taken away too many genes, including those responsible for normal cell division. It produced oddly shaped cells as it self-replicated. The organism acted in ways scientists hadn't predicted. In 2016, Venter's team created JCVI-syn3.0, a single-celled organism with even fewer genes-just 473-which made it the simplest life-form ever known. It was the first self-replicating species on the planet whose parents were, technically, computers, and the project was designed to help the team understand the basic principles of life, from the minimal cell up. Venter's team named their 907-gene creature JCVI-syn1.0, or Synthia, for short. What I'm describing isn't cloning life but, rather, redesigning it using synthetic biology, a new field of science that reengineers organisms to have new capabilities. After the DNA is written or edited to a researcher's satisfaction, a new DNA molecule is generated from scratch using something akin to a 3D printer. Using special software, DNA sequences are loaded into a sort of text editor for DNA code. Craig Venter and his team announced an astonishing discovery: They could destroy the DNA of an organism called Mycoplasma capricolum and replace it with DNA they had written on a computer that was based on another similar bacterium, Mycoplasma mycoides. What we build during this new age will unlock new business opportunities, mitigate or even reverse environmental damage, and improve the human condition in countless other ways. If we can see beyond the haze of our synthetic Old Fashioneds, the current moment-in which we are learning to manipulate molecules, engineer microorganisms, and build biocomputing systems-is the start of a new era in the evolution of civilization: the Biological Age. We assume that consumers will pay for craftsmanship, and that may still be true in the future, with a twist: What if they value chief bioscientists and their work more than master brewers? Synthetic flavors are going to call into question what we think of as authentic and good, and what roles humans must play in cultivating what we eat and drink.