$125 million for Inscripta may usher in the next wave of genetic engineering
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$125 million for Inscripta may usher in the next wave of genetic engineering
In these waning days of the second decade of the twenty-first century, technologists and investors are beginning to lay the foundations for new, truly transformational technologies that have the potential to reshape entire industries and rewrite the rules of human understanding.
It may sound lofty, but new achievements from businesses and research institutions in areas like machine learning, quantum computing, and genetic engineering mean that the futures imagined in science fiction are simply becoming science.
And among the technologies that could potentially have the biggest effect on the way we live, nothing looms larger than genetic engineering.
Investors and entrepreneurs are deploying hundreds of millions of dollars to create the tools that researchers, scientists and industry will use to re-engineer the building blocks of life to perform different functions in agriculture, manufacturing and medicine.
One of these companies, 10X Genomics, which gives users hardware and software to determine the functionality of different genetic code, has already proven how lucrative this early market can be. The company, which had its initial public offering earlier this year is now worth $6 billion.
Another, the still-private company is Inscripta, helmed by a former TenX Genomics executive, the Boulder, Colo.-based startup is commercializing a machine that can let researchers design and manufacture small quantities of new organisms. If TenX Genomics is giving scientists and businesses a better way to read and understand the genome, then Inscripta is giving those same users a new way to write their own genetic code and make their own organisms.
It's a technology that inv