Synthetic biology is no longer a technical term confined to laboratories. It is emerging as a next-generation manufacturing technology capable of transforming production methods across industries, from chemicals, fuels, and proteins for carbon neutrality to gene therapy development and the food and materials industries. As artificial intelligence (AI) enters the domain of biological design in earnest, synthetic biology is shifting from mere research and development to a core technology that nations must address at the level of industrial strategy and supply chains.
"Over the next three to five years, as AI evolves rapidly, the accuracy of the design stage will improve significantly, and the gap in design capabilities between companies will narrow," said Kazuhiko Yamamoto, CEO of Synplogen, in an interview with The Seoul Economic Daily at the company's office in Kobe, Japan, on the 21st of last month. "Ultimately, the key is not who produces more sophisticated designs, but who can implement those designs into actual DNA quickly and accurately," he added.
Synplogen is a university lab-based synthetic biology company founded in 2017 by researchers including Yamamoto, who served as a professor at the Graduate School of Science, Technology and Innovation at Kobe University, and Akihiko Kondo, professor emeritus at Kobe University. The researchers developed and patented a proprietary technology for handling long DNA. This technology evolved into OGAB™, Synplogen's core technology, which has reached the commercialization stage. OGAB™ is Synplogen's proprietary synthesis technology that uses Bacillus subtilis to assemble long and complex DNA fragments in precise order.
The longer a DNA sequence, the more diverse genes it can contain. This makes it possible to implement advanced technologies such as gene therapy, biomaterials, and microbial production processes. However, as DNA lengthens, errors are more likely to occur during synthesis, and the likelihood of breakage or instability due to repetitive sequences or complex structures also increases. For this reason, the ability to stably produce long DNA is considered a core competitive advantage in the synthetic biology field.
Synplogen has grown on the back of OGAB™ amid Japan's strategy to nurture the bio industry. The Japanese government and the city of Kobe have developed the Kobe Biomedical Innovation Cluster (KBIC), creating a structure where hospitals, research institutions, universities, and companies come together in one place to jointly pursue research, development, and commercialization. The area has also been designated as a national strategic special zone, establishing an environment that enables regulatory easing and support for demonstration and startups. A structure has been formed in which university lab technologies lead to startups, which in turn connect to hospitals, companies, and investment. Japan's designation of biomanufacturing and synthetic biology as key agendas from the perspectives of decarbonization, industrial competitiveness, and economic security has also created a favorable environment for companies like Synplogen. After its founding, Synplogen received investment from venture capital firm JAFCO and subsequently succeeded in raising funds with the participation of Mizuho Bank, expanding its business foundation. "Mizuho Financial Group invests by identifying areas that can substantively help the future businesses of its client companies, and the investment in Synplogen was its first such case," Yamamoto said.
Synplogen has since proven its technological prowess by partnering with global companies including Arcalis, Fujifilm, and Merck. In particular, discussions on collaboration with Ginkgo Bioworks, a world-leading synthetic biology company, illustrate Synplogen's differentiation. Synplogen is considering a model in which it provides Ginkgo with highly challenging DNA that is difficult to synthesize, and Ginkgo uses it to carry out biomanufacturing.
Synplogen expects the pace of commercialization to accelerate dramatically as AI rapidly evolves over the next three to five years. If AI can design DNA sequences and rapidly synthesize them in the process of exploring gene and cell therapies as well as antibody drugs, the cycle of "design → synthesis → experimental verification" will speed up. The candidate discovery and verification period, which currently takes anywhere from several years to more than a decade, could also be shortened. At that point, the source of competitive advantage shifts from experimental data and know-how to the "production" capability of actually making AI-designed DNA quickly and accurately.
Synplogen recently decided to collaborate with imec, a Belgian semiconductor research institute. The goal is a next-generation technology that synthesizes DNA on microchips. Applying semiconductor microfabrication technology to DNA synthesis enables multiple DNA fragments to be produced simultaneously on a small chip. This makes mass production possible and lowers costs. While high-value-added fields such as gene therapies and mRNA vaccines can absorb the cost burden, expanding into areas that require low-cost mass production, such as food, materials, chemicals, and fuels, requires technology that can produce DNA more cheaply and quickly. "Japan currently views synthetic biology technology from the perspective of economic security," Yamamoto said. "Lowering the cost of DNA synthesis, which will be applied across all industries, will be an important asset that enhances national competitiveness and supply chain stability."
