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'Biology Will Be the Next Big Computing Platform' (wired.com)
An anonymous reader writes: "Amazon, but for Crispr." It's a notion that may sound far-fetched -- but it's exactly what Synthego, a Silicon Valley biotech startup, wants to be. Synthego's first product let scientists order a custom Crispr kit and have it delivered within a week; in the next few weeks, the startup will add custom Crispr'd human cell lines to its on-demand offerings, which will help scientists working on potentially life-saving medicines. Crispr, as this WIRED guide explains, "is a new class of molecular tools that scientists can use to precisely target and cut any kind of genetic material." It's revolutionizing biology -- but neither of Synthego's founders is a biologist. Turns out, in the ever-expanding industry around genome engineering, that's hardly a disqualifier.
Across the country, companies are trying to snag a seat on the fast-moving Crispr train. There's Inscripta, which is gunning to be the Apple of gene-editing by building the biological equivalent of the personal computer. In theory, that hardware will make gene editing as easy as pushing a button. And then there's Twist Biosciences, which can print out a powerful Crispr guide (the tool that identifies the bits of genetic code a scientist is hoping to target) on a single semiconductor chip -- the Intel of genome engineering, if you will. As Megan Molteni writes, "all these analogies to the computing industry are more than just wordplay." Rather, they offer a language for understanding the complex world of Crispr. "Crispr is making biology more programmable than ever before," Molteni writes. "And the biotech execs staking their claims in Crispr's backend systems have read their Silicon Valley history. They're betting biology will be the next great computing platform, DNA will be the code that runs it, and Crispr will be the programming language."
Across the country, companies are trying to snag a seat on the fast-moving Crispr train. There's Inscripta, which is gunning to be the Apple of gene-editing by building the biological equivalent of the personal computer. In theory, that hardware will make gene editing as easy as pushing a button. And then there's Twist Biosciences, which can print out a powerful Crispr guide (the tool that identifies the bits of genetic code a scientist is hoping to target) on a single semiconductor chip -- the Intel of genome engineering, if you will. As Megan Molteni writes, "all these analogies to the computing industry are more than just wordplay." Rather, they offer a language for understanding the complex world of Crispr. "Crispr is making biology more programmable than ever before," Molteni writes. "And the biotech execs staking their claims in Crispr's backend systems have read their Silicon Valley history. They're betting biology will be the next great computing platform, DNA will be the code that runs it, and Crispr will be the programming language."
My startup is planning on being the next "Uber for Crispr". Our current valuation is $54.3B but we are looking at a $3T market. If you are interested in learning more, just message me.
Darwin: Actually, biology was the original computing platform.
Wallace: I said it first!
Mendel: No, it was me!
[whispered] shove your peas up your butt
Mendel: Who said that? I'll smash his fucking face in!
Darwin & Wallace, in unison: Lamarck, like always.
God: Play nice, or I'll send you all back as tapeworms.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I have worked with Crispr/Cas9 for the past two years and have used the very nice product of one of the companies cited in the article (Synthego). This article makes no sense whatsoever. You can replace every instance of Crispr in the article with Blockchain and it will make exactly as much sense and be even better clickbait. Two of the companies offer cheap DNA/RNA synthesis service. The third one has cloned yet another Cas9 related enzyme, but still needs to show that the enzyme is of any use. Where does the "computing platform" come from is a mystery to me.