What’s happening
Gene-editing therapies are approved, engineered microbes produce food ingredients and chemicals, and AI predicts protein structures. Costs of reading and writing DNA keep falling.
Timing: LATER — roughly 5–15 years before this becomes structural.
Why it matters
Programmable biology could transform medicine, agriculture and manufacturing — while raising serious safety and ethical questions.
What would make it real
- Engineered biology products competitive on cost
- Faster design-to-product cycles
- Clear regulations that enable safe innovation
What would kill it
- Safety incidents or misuse
- Public backlash against engineered organisms
- Scaling production proves too costly