Synthetic biology is all grown up and ready to lobby

Synthetic biology, the business of using technology to one-up nature, has for years been a fairly quirky corner of the often buttoned-up world of life sciences. Now, however, as its banner companies have outgrown their garages and started making real money, synthetic biology is evolving into a proper industry, one with money to spend in Washington.

As STAT’s Nicholas Florko and Rebecca Robbins report, synthetic biology companies just launched the sector’s first lobbying group, and yesterday they gathered at the White House for a summit in their honor. Next is a trip to Capitol Hill to schmooze with House staffers, all part of a broad effort to bring the technology into the mainstream.

“We’re starting to grow up a little bit,” said Jason Kelly, CEO of Gingko Bioworks, one of the founding companies of the new lobbying group, known as the Bioeconomy Alliance. “We’re kind of like teenagers, the synbio industry. We’re a little awkward but starting to have a little more responsibility.”

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