Synthetic biology industry yields bountiful results in Guangming

In recent years, the Guangming Science City has gathered world-class innovation resources and innovation platforms. The 24 major facilities for technological innovation within it, which spans the three sectors of information, life sciences and new materials and include nine major scientific and technological infrastructure facilities, 11 research platforms, two provincial key laboratories and two high-level universities, have provided a foundation for enterprise-academic institution collaboration and the tackling of key technological challenges.

An introduction of the Industry Innovation Center for Engineering Biology is available in the center. Courtesy of Guangming Convergence Media

On the first floor of the Industry Innovation Center for Engineering Biology, visitors will find an exhibition showcasing innovative products from startups incubated in the center such as Boyin Biotech, Biosysen, and Sunrise Biotech. Since its operation in 2017, the center has been focusing on incubating startups in synthetic biology-related industries. Thus far, it has organized over 300 startups in 11 batches to vie for incubation, and has facilitated the establishment of 42 synthetic biology companies with a total estimated value of over 16.48 billion yuan (US$2.25 billion) in the Guangming Science City.

These achievements are the result of the center’s innovation and entrepreneurship complex model, which features the research and development space on upper floors for researchers to engage in innovation endeavors and solve problems in basic sciences to facilitate core technological breakthroughs, and the industrial incubation space on lower floors to provide a shared experiment platform and expert support for synthetic biology startups. By bringing together researchers and investors, the center serves as a one-stop platform for the integration of basic research and research results industrialization.

A view of the Guangming Science City.

It is worth noting that startups incubated in the center can choose to relocate to one of the synthetic biology industrial parks in the Guangming Science City to continue their industrialization process. Currently, the industrial parks host 15 synthetic biology companies, most of which have received investments from venture capital institutions and have been recognized by the Guangming District Government. Their total valuation approximates 10 billion yuan.

Shenzhen Cytorola Biomedical Technology Co. Ltd. in September moved from the center to the Hengtaiyu South China Medical Valley Synthetic Biology Industrial Park, expanding its space from 300 square meters to 2,400 square meters. The company, settled in the center in 2021, has seen its output value multiply in less than two years. “The facilities for experiments in the innovation center are crucial for research companies like us,” said Zhang Lifeng, Cytorola’s general manager. “The values of those facilities range from several million yuan to tens of millions yuan. They have helped small-sized R&D firms like us to save lots of costs.”

In the automated function area on the fourth floor of the Shenzhen Major Scientific and Technological Infrastructure for Synthetic Biology Research, robotic arms are working deftly to place biological reagents and samples onto wells on microplates. This intelligent infrastructure serves as a comprehensive platform for synthetic biology research that combines a “cloud laboratory” for users and an “intelligent laboratory” for operators. In the future, the facility will become a world-leading platform for intelligent life system design and manufacturing by combining software, hardware and synthetic biology applications.

The infrastructure is part of Guangming District’s ongoing effort to speed up the construction of major scientific and technological infrastructure facilities in Guangming Science City. The operation of such facilities is set to significantly enhance Shenzhen’s capabilities in making breakthroughs in life sciences basic research and technologies.