Should You Invest in Synthetic Biology Stocks?

<p>Decades ago, scientists grew excited about the possibility of engineering biology with standardized parts, similar to the foundational changes that enabled the semiconductor industry to blossom into one of the most important in the global economy. Or for the less technical crowd, like Legos.</p> <p>What should this new way of working with biology be called? The term “intentional biology” was originally proposed, but too many academics scoffed at the proposal, as it implied what they had been doing to that point was “unintentional biology.” Eventually, the field settled on the term “synthetic biology” that remains in use to this day.</p> <p>There’s just one problem facing investors: What the heck does “synthetic biology” mean?</p> <p>Synthetic biology isn’t an industry. It’s a way of thinking. It’s about applying engineering principles to biology to create living products and services with predictable functions. Reproducibility may not sound like a significant problem, but a 2016 <em>Nature </em>review found that 60% of scientists <em>couldn’t reproduce their own results</em>. Results from peer-reviewed publications – the gold standard of science – couldn’t be replicated 70% of the time.</p> <p>As our understanding of biology grows and our ability to more precisely engineer it deepens, living technology will enter and disrupt many economic sectors. This includes health care and agriculture, but also those not commonly associated with biology, such as mining, digital data storage, energy storage, and more.</p> <p>In an appearance on the <a href="https://7investing.com/articles/whats-next-for-synthetic-biology/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">7investing podcast</a>, Dr. Drew Endy, one of the founding fathers of synthetic biology, provided a framework for understanding how biotechnology and synthetic biology differ.</p> <ul> <li><strong>Biotechnology</strong> was enabled by three core technologies including recombinant DNA (the ability to clone genes), polymerase chain reaction (PCR, or the ability to amplify gen