Illustration by Sam Island
Synthetic biology—or "synbio" for short—is the stuff of science fiction brought to life. Whereas standard-issue biotechnology involves inserting a gene from one organism into another, synbio entails stuff like inserting computer-generated DNA sequences into living cells: i.e, creating new organisms altogether. And the technology has made a major breakthrough: A company called Evolva has managed to create a compound called vanillin—the one that gives vanilla beans their distinctive and wildly popular flavor—grown not on a vine but rather in a culture of synthetic yeast.
Even though you'll likely soon be ingesting its products, synbio—like nanotechnology, which I looked at in two posts last week—is virtually unregulated and can show up in consumer products without any labeling requirements. But unlike nanotech, whose tiny particles already pervade more than 1600 consumer products (including 96 food ones), the industry around synthetic biology is only beginning its push its inventions into things we encounter daily.
According to a recent piece by The New York Times' excellent Stephanie Strom, food and cosmetics manufacturers are "reticent" to disclose their use of synbio. But consumer products that likely contain synbio-derived oils, she reports, include laundry detergent made by the Belgian company Ecover; Lux, a shower soap made by Unilver; and a slew of mostly unnamed beauty products (examples include Elizabeth Arden Visible Difference moisture cream) that include a synbio oil from a company called Amyris.
Next up: food additives—synthetically derived replicas of vanillin, resveratrol, and citrus, Strom reports.
If a bunch of hidden additives sounds like a modest achievement for a technology that creates life itself, well, it is. The industry has grander dreams. In a 2011 Scientific American interview, the scientist/magnate Craig Venter—the man who led the mapping of the human genome—laid them out:
[Venter's] reengineered photosynthetic cells would take in carbon dioxide and sunlight and spew out hydrocarbons ready for the ExxonMobil refinery (the oil giant that has provided Venter's company Synthetic Genomics with $300 million in funding to date). In the process, the algae will turn a problem—CO2 causing climate change—and transform it into a solution—renewable fuels and slowed global warming. "Trying to capture CO2 and bury it is just dumb; it's going to be the renewable feedstock for the future," he said.
So how did the industry alight upon face creams, fragrances, and laundry soap on the way to Venter's bio-enginered energy utopia? The bridge was supposed to be cellulosic ethanol, which is made from the non-edible part of plants: stuff like grass, wood chips, and crops wastes like corn stalks. The trick is cheaply breaking down that tough plant matter, known as cellulose, into simple sugars that can be fermented. Synbio offered a solution: synthesized yeasts designed to feed on cellulose.
You likely won't know it when you buy a pint of high-end ice cream from a company that uses synbio.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the synbio energy revolution. It turns out that the industry has yet to produce these wonder fuels at prices at anywhere near those of with existing sources like petroleum—and so, as this January Nature article shows, the industry has unceremoniously turned away from them. To find a marketable product and keep investors happy, the industry pivoted from the grandiose to the mundane.
Thus Evolva and its magic vanillin. "It will be the first major synthetic-biology food additive to hit supermarkets," Nature reports. And we should expect more of the same:
The product marks a shift for the industry, which has typically focused on the synthesis of drugs and commodities such as biofuels and rubber. Now, synthetic-biology companies are turning to ‘fine chemicals’: food and fragrance ingredients that command high prices in small batches. “The products take less time to develop, they take less money to develop, and they’re much less risky,” says [Evolva exec Neil] Goldsmith.
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