Programmable Planet by Ted Anton

Author:Ted Anton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SCI008000, Science/Life Sciences/Biology, SCI010000, Science/Biotechnology
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2023-07-25T00:00:00+00:00

A Strange Illness

The images coming from around the world in 2020 looked like scenes from a dystopian thriller. Whole countries were placed on total lockdown. In Wuhan, China, people were allowed to leave their apartments only for an hour a week, to get groceries, and then only with passes. New York City looked deserted in gray, cold rain. Trafalgar Square was empty. The typically bustling Paris Metro looked dark and terrifying.

After the virus genome was revealed in January 2020, researchers, using algorithms, designed similar surface molecules to place on harmless viruses and trigger the body’s defenses. Fueled by billions of dollars in government emergency spending, companies such as Moderna, CureVac, Johnson & Johnson, and Oxford Biomedica pursued a vaccine. They had a head start on some of the traditional vaccine makers, but none had brought a product to market.

This was synthetic biology’s big moment. The World Health Organization coordinated the efforts of more than 180 institutes to create a vaccine. In China, the companies CanSinoBIO and Sinovac tapped weakened natural viruses, much as Louis Pasteur had done. In labs across the world, synthetic biology researchers retooled to take on COVID-19. Several companies and institutions, such as Jennifer Doudna’s Mammoth Biosciences, Boston’s Ginkgo Bioworks, Harvard and MIT’s Sherlock Biosciences, and the Yale School of Public Health, turned their science platforms to making simple, cheap coronavirus tests.

In April 2020, Doudna’s Mammoth Biosciences announced successful trials of a CRISPR-based at-home COVID-19 test.21 Ginkgo Bioworks offered its facilities free of charge to COVID-19 test and antibody makers. As a key player in the pandemic battle, synthetic biology was playing many new roles.

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