The burgeoning potential of generative artificial intelligence is set to play a leading role in the healthcare industry in 2024 along with gene editing and its applications in precision medicine and synthetic biology. This will enable the generation of new ingredients for the food sector and bioactive substances for the pharmaceutical industry to unlock innovation in business biotechnology argues Francesc Puiggròs, scientific director of the Biotechnology Area at the Eurecat technology centre.
In lockstep with laying the foundations of the regulatory framework for its use, he thinks that “the ability of generative artificial intelligence to reach beyond drawing on defined algorithms and existing patterns and tap machine learning neural networks to generate content which simulates human creativity will be pivotal in applying big data in the healthcare industry, interpreting the vast amounts of biological data available and fast-tracking innovation in the sector.”
As examples, Francesc Puiggròs points to “the potential for automating processes to expedite the discovery of biological substances for use in the pharmaceutical or food industries plus automated analysis of scientific text to optimise experimental design to validate them.”
He also stresses the opportunity this technology affords for discovering “new efficient products for human wellbeing or detecting and classifying images to identify, diagnose and treat grades of tumours or symptoms of incipient diseases in a hitherto unimaginable time.”
Gene sequencing and editing
Sequencing technologies enable the business sector to better understand genomes and harness techniques such as CRISPR which enhance the precision of gene editing. This means “they open up applications in gene therapy, in using microorganisms as ‘targeted factories’ of molecules which will become commercial assets,” notes Francesc Puiggròs.
“Although it is still in its infancy and its regulatory framework has yet to be contextualised, 2024 should be a year which sees growing understanding of this technology and its applications in precision medicine, synthetic biology and the generation of new active ingredients and substances for use in the food and medical industries and for the business biotech sector in general,” he adds.
Biomanufacturing, application of microfluidics and advanced in vitro systems
Francesc Puiggròs also says that “biotechnology is today engaged in optimising technologies which unlock the ability to simulate biological environments in a laboratory and on a small scale.”
Here he points out that “biomanufacturing, which is tissue engineering, and microfluidics in an in vitro cellular environment will enable progress to be made in sustainable and large-scale product manufacturing” in biomedicine and biotechnology.
Hence “by generating organ-on-a-chip devices which simulate the physiology of organs or types of organs on small chips or organoids, i.e. 3D structures similar to a tiny organ generated from cell culture, they will be used in the mass screening of ingredients and drugs to model pathologies and identify potential points of treatment and will also help in the medium term to optimise use of animal experimental models.”
