China's Shenzhen builds complete innovation chain to empower synthetic biology enterprises

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By Cheng Yuanzhou, Sun Zhen (People's Daily) 09:43, June 04, 2024

Photo shows the Industrial Innovation Center for Engineering Biology in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong province. (Photo from the WeChat public account of the publicity department of Guangming district, Shenzhen)

In less than five years, Synceres Biosciences, a high-tech startup located in the Guangming Science City, a cluster of scientific and technological facilities in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong province, has grown into a "rising star" valued at over 1 billion yuan ($137.95 million) in the synthetic biology industry.

It has developed from a company initially staffed with two or three employees to a high-tech pioneer drawing nearly 300 million yuan in funding and hiring nearly 200 employees, turning from a research-focused organization publishing papers in prestigious journals like Nature to a manufacturer that sells products globally.

This remarkable progress would not have been possible without the supportive innovation ecosystem fostered by the Guangming Science City.

Luo Xiaozhou, co-founder of Synceres Biosciences, showed People's Daily reporters around at the Industrial Innovation Center for Engineering Biology (hereafter referred to as the "Innovation Center"), which was co-established by the People's Government of Guangming District of Shenzhen and the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). It helps build the Guangming Science City into a national synthetic biology industry hub, also where Luo's company is located.

He explained that the Innovation Center enables startups not only to undertake basic research but also to commercialize their findings into actual products. Furthermore, he added, there is an industrialization park nearby where companies can scale up to mass production.

"A complete innovation chain is our greatest strength," he told People's Daily.

As a pilot zone for the comprehensive national science center in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), the Guangming Science City aims to build itself into a source of original innovation in basic research and a test bed for efficient commercialization of technologies.

Photo shows a laboratory of a synthetic biology facility in a life science park in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong province. (Photo from the WeChat public account of the publicity department of Guangming district, Shenzhen)

Based on major scientific and technological innovation facilities and institutions, the Guangming Science City has established engineering and technological innovation centers, and built a model of "fostering innovation upstairs and nurturing entrepreneurship downstairs" in the Innovation Center that serves enterprises from scientific research to industrial application.

On the first floor of the Innovation Center, the latest products developed by synthetic biology enterprises are exhibited, including Synceres Biosciences, Bontac Bio-engineering, and Cytorola Biomedical.

Luo Wei, a researcher with the Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology (iSynBio), a scientific research institute led by SIAT, told People's Daily that researchers gather here for original innovations, striving to achieve breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields of the synthetic biology industry.

Besides, business incubators also cluster here for engineering development and pilot-scale commercialization of the original innovations, thus driving the industrial application of scientific and technological achievements, Luo Wei added.

"With researchers and companies working side-by-side, a single creative spark could ignite a new idea, and commercialization bottlenecks could be cleared, which greatly shortens the cycle for converting research into viable products," said Luo Wei.

Luo Xiaozhou, apart from being a researcher at the iSynBio of SIAT, is also an entrepreneur at the Innovation Center. Through an equity investment model, the SIAT can transfer its research achievements to Synceres Biosciences. They have also established a joint lab, sharing research resources and talent to promote the deep integration of the innovation, industrial, capital, and talent chains.

Last November, a major scientific and technological infrastructure for synthetic biology research was launched in the Guangming Science City, providing further momentum for enterprises here. The new products launched by Synceres Biosciences this year were exactly developed with its support.

Photo shows the Guangming Science City in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong province. (Photo from the WeChat public account of the publicity department of Guangming district, Shenzhen)