Recognizing this, the Nobel Prize committee awarded all three Nobels for 2024 in science—for Physiology, Chemistry and Physics—to scientists who have approached their fields from the vantage point of AI. The prize for Physics was awarded jointly to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks.
The Nobel prize for Chemistry was awarded to David Baker for computational protein design and jointly to Demis Hassabis and John Jumper for protein structure prediction. The prize for Physiology was awarded jointly to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for the discovery of microRNA and its role.
Most of us have grown up in the computer age and easily recognize the ‘0-or-1’ digital building blocks that go into an 8-bit code. A single 8-bit code represents a letter like ‘A.’ Combinations of this 8-bit code then represent words, language, programs and software. The biological world operates in a broadly similar way.
Five nucleobases called Adenine (A), Cytosine (C), Guanine (G), Thymine (T) and Uracil (U) function as the fundamental units of all genetic code. These nucleobases form molecules called nucleotides that combine in units of three called codons to make up the 20 naturally occurring amino acids. DNA is made up of long chains of nucleotides that form a double helix.
The bases in DNA pair up, with Adenine pairing with Thymine and Cytosine pairing with Guanine. And these 20 amino acids in turn combine to make up all the proteins in the biological world. All physical stuff that’s biological has proteins.
Remarkably, all life can be represented by this code. There is a certain universality to this, which means that a single-cell bacterium or complex animal like a human being can be rendered by this code. This sets up the intriguing possibility that this code can be ‘read,’ ‘edited’ and ‘programmed.’
Even though DNA was identified in cells nearly 150 years ago, the ‘genomics’ revolution really only began 50 years ago when Fredrick Sanger first ‘sequenced’ the complete genome of a virus. The word ‘sequenced’ refers to the ability to observe and read genetic code.
The human genome project was completed in 2003, sequencing 3 billion letters and about 25,000 genes. The speed and cost of sequencing has changed dramatically in the last 20 years.
Synthetic biology is the field that lies at the intersection of biology and engineering. In recent years, it has become possible not only to read the biological code, but also synthetically engineer biological ‘bits’ based on the A, C, G, T/U building blocks. We are very early in this revolution. Far more is unknown than known at this juncture, but a few remarkable feats have been achieved.
Today, scientists are able to design and print a sequence of biological bits which in turn can generate proteins and enzymes. It has also become possible to synthesize two new nucleotides, allowing for combinations that are not present today in nature.
Most applications of these advancements in the near future will derive from the ability to synthesize proteins. These proteins can perform specific intended functions—say, to create a drug, substitute a current chemical in animal feed or a detergent, or be the key ingredient in a biofuel.
Together with this great promise, unknowns and risks remain. We still do not know exactly how a single-cell organism works. Scientists can engineer and print proteins, but they may not function exactly how they intended. Since we are reverse engineering nature, we do not have a ‘simulator’ that can take code and work it through to a conclusion (something we can easily do for digital computing).
As with AI, even as science marches on, ethical and societal considerations will need to be tackled. One approach could be to require that scientists record every single bio-bit ever engineered, which could be done by using block-chain technology.
India has already made a beginning in synthetic biology. To mix metaphors, the intersection of software and biology is a natural sweet spot for our scientific DNA. While the capital expenditure for research in this field is much greater than that for pure software, it is much less than what is required for the manufacture of semiconductors.
To this we can add India’s ability to innovate and create applications in a frugal manner. This sets up the possibility that India’s scientists can synthetically create cheap biological substitutes for drug development, alternative energy sources and food.
One particular area of drug development is the synthetic creation of biological cells called ‘phage,’ which are viruses that can perform the function of antibiotics against harmful bacteria. As the latter’s resistance to chemical anti-microbial drugs grows with their overuse, evolving phage therapies offer a promising alternative.
It seems likely that what cyber-security software and AI are to this age, synthetic biology will be to the next one.
P.S: “Biology is the most powerful technology ever created. DNA is software, proteins are hardware, cells are factories,” says investor Arvind Gupta.
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