The biotechnology industry has been on a slow but steady rise over the past couple of years. We have slowly been approaching the zenith of innovation, with new and better technologies emerging by the day. But how does 2020 contribute to this remarkable journey?
Here are five trends tipped to transform the biotech industry this year:
1. CRISPR
Scientists recently used the Crispr-Cas9 tool to perform gene editing for the first time in a living subject. This was bound to happen. CRISPR has been with us for quite some time now, but ethical issues have prevented scientists from making any significant headway.
2020 isn't the year all that is going to change, but we expect to see some progress now that a trial has gone through. Some of the projected applications for CRISPR include treating genetic diseases in humans and animals, combating antimicrobial resistance, and enhancing crop production.
2. Personalized medicine
Personalized healthcare is an approach that targets an individual's specific healthcare needs, such that medicines and treatment plans are created based on the patient's genomics, genetics, symptoms, etc.
The reason this extremely important healthcare approach hasn't hit the ground running yet is that incorporating genomic information into electronic health records is not child's play. The vast amounts of data also call for the adoption of special storage techniques, which may not be accessible to some healthcare providers.
Scientists have come up with ways to get around some of these obstacles, meaning personalized medicine may finally cease being the pipedream it used to be.
3. Immunoassay
Immunoassays are chemical tests performed to detect or measure specific substances using immunological reactions. Since they use antigens and antibodies to detect, classify, and quantify the said substances, immunoassays are pretty accurate and sensitive.
Immunoassays have the edge on standard tests in that they can detect target antigens even in low concentrations. They can be used to diagnose cancer, diabetes, heart disease, etc. accurately.
According to the Global Immunoassays Market research, the immunoassays space is expected to register a compound annual growth rate of 9.7 percent for the five years ending 2023.
4. Pig-to-human xenotransplantation
Pig-to-human organ transplant has been the subject of heated ethical arguments for years. However, the pro-xenotransplantation brigade seems to be winning the war, and 2020 looks like the year their plans leave the theory phase and enter the practical one.
Researchers in South Korea are on course to transplant pig corneas into a human, according to the Guardian. There are multiple other groups with similar objectives across Europe and the US, with some focusing on creating pigs with organs that can be transplanted into people.
Since the human body is quite picky when it comes to organs, scientists may be forced to use the CRISPR gene-editing technology to trick the body into recognizing the foreign organs as their own.
Final thoughts
Biotechnology is far from reaching the zenith of development, but each year is an opportunity for players in the industry to find new solutions and alternatives and delve into unexplored areas. The above trends are among the technologies highly expected to grace the biotech space in 2020 and beyond.
