Focus on cutting-edge scientific and technological innovation and upgrading of traditional industries
20 1 1 mark anderson, the founder and venture capitalist of Netscape, put forward a famous point: "Software is devouring the world". There is no doubt that his prediction has come true.
Technology is also constantly developing. Where is the next similar basic technology after software "devours" the world?
The Anderson Holovitz Foundation (a 16z), the top venture capitalist in the world, put forward a new viewpoint in a recent article: living things are "devouring" the world. Interestingly, mark anderson is the co-founder of this fund.
From this article, the Capital Lab has sorted out several points worthy of attention:
1. Biology has developed into an engineering discipline and will fundamentally change the way we diagnose, treat and manage diseases.
2. The future drug discovery and development is a modular, programmable and iterative process.
With the help of software and artificial intelligence, biology-related therapies will also develop.
The development of technology will promote the reform of the whole medical system and bring new opportunities to startups.
Biology will affect all industries and become an inseparable and important part in the development of all industries.
6. In the field of biology, both entrepreneurs and investors need to build profound professional knowledge and experience, as well as interdisciplinary and cross-industry learning ability.
This article was written by Jorge Kant, Vijai Pande and Julie Liu, the general partners of the Fund:
We are at the beginning of a new era, and biology has changed from an empirical science to an engineering discipline. After thousands of years of artificial control or manipulation of biology, we finally began to design, realize and transform biology through bioengineering and using the mechanism of nature itself.
Bioengineering ability will fundamentally change the way we diagnose, treat and manage diseases.
At the beginning of1965-1980s, recombinant DNA technology and the first biopharmaceutical achieved the first major leap.
Nowadays, modern tools such as CRISPR and gene circuits enable us to write biological programs in an increasingly accurate and complex way, from bacteria aimed at producing new chemicals and protein to cells aimed at attacking cancer.
At the same time, the explosive growth of "programmable drugs" (genes, cells, microorganisms, and even mobile applications and software that can improve our own health) makes us more connected with the holy grail of medicine, that is, the cure, than ever before.
Because these new drugs are essentially engineering and programmable systems, the discovery and development of drugs will change from a customized process to an iterative process.
We can now design a molecule for a specific target, and even design a platform on which many future drugs can be built.
Like software upgrade, programmable drugs make it more and more possible to improve a given drug in the next generation. For example, every new version of car T cells will be more complicated than the previous generation. The modularity of these drugs means that new applications will make it easier to build and reuse common components like Lego bricks: once we learn how to transfer genes to specific cells of a specific disease, we are more likely to transfer different genes to different cells of another disease.
Not only biology is developing, but also therapeutics is developing.
Now, you can download a treatment to manage complex chronic diseases, such as diabetes or behavioral disorders, which may be better than any existing drugs. In view of the complicated conditions, software may be the best way for us to influence biology. These digital health treatments are not only likely to make you better, but also the treatment itself will get better and better as the treatment time goes on.
All these functions are based on the fact that we can generate unprecedented data, plus advanced computing tools that can understand these data.
Biology is very complex, even beyond the ability of human thinking to fully understand, but the platform based on artificial intelligence (AI) may connect points that used to look like noise, produce new discoveries, and even change the nature of the discovery itself. This will promote the development of new therapies and the next generation of diagnostic techniques, so that we can find diseases such as cancer at an early stage and even stop them before they start.
We are at a unique moment, and our entire medical system is being redesigned through technology. The factors that have traditionally hindered the reform of the medical system, such as unbalanced incentive mechanism and lack of transparency, are finally changing. In the end, patients will become a powerful stakeholder in this system. Medical care is being pushed out of the scope of hospitals, and new models appear every day. No matter where you are, you can easily provide medical services.
In all these areas, technology is reducing friction, introducing automation and providing new methods for cost-effective clinical services. Building successful products and services in this market always requires a deep understanding of today's complex medical value chain and how to integrate into it.
However, the innovation of payment mode and the expansion of the definition of medical system are exposing the gaps in the system, which can be filled by new companies. Looking ahead, the medical market will be dominated by technology companies.
Of course, biology will not only affect human health and diseases. With its unparalleled ability of evolution, replication and creation, biology is one of the most advanced manufacturing technologies on earth. We have seen that it can change food, agriculture, textiles, manufacturing, the use of DNA-based computers, and even the software itself.
Today's biology is the information technology 50 years ago, which touches all the edges of our lives. Just like software, biology will become a part of every industry one day.
The next generation company will be established by a new generation of interdisciplinary founders with extensive professional knowledge. Future biological companies will learn from the experience of predecessors in the industrial fields such as consumers, enterprises and financial technology. Therefore, we believe that investors in this field also need to have profound professional knowledge and experience, and need multidisciplinary research to support the founders in the ever-changing industry.
We live in the century of biology, and biology is devouring the world.