The Untapped Eden, Biotech’s Third Branch

Gregory Scott Muhs
5 min readJun 2, 2020

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Often when people think of biotechnology, it seems that the focus is primarily in two areas: medicine and agriculture. But there is a third branch that I think has a lot of untapped potential — potential to move humanity forward in the Twenty-First Century. This third branch is sometimes called “Industry Biotechnology” or “White Biotechnology” and while I have broad interests, this is the sector of biotech that interests me the most.

Some examples of industry biotechnology include bioenergy and biomaterials. When I was an undergrad at RIT, I conducted research with algae biomass and used it to create biodiesel. This algae was grown on wastewater and had the two-fold purpose of cleaning wastewater and creating biomass that had the potential to be used as a biotech product (in our case, biodiesel). Several years later, I am working with PLA, a type of plastic made from corn starch to 3D print facemasks for people in the medical industry. (This is something I am doing on my own time, not with a company.)

Industry biotech covers other areas besides bioenergy and biomaterials, including textiles and chemical manufacturing, but for the sake of keeping this article simple, I am going to primarily focus on those two examples.

Not long ago I came across the work of a professor at the University of Rochester named Dr. Anne Meyer. Dr. Meyer is using genetically engineered bacteria to 3D print objects made out of nacre, the same material that pearls are made out of. She is also using bacteria to create graphene, a product that may turn out to be the most revolutionary material of our time.

A few weeks ago I came across a company in California using bacteria to convert methane emissions from landfills into plastics.

A lot of people see these sorts of technologies as being “green” in the sense that they are putatively better for the environment than conventional petroleum-based products, but what I see is so much more.

Consider the space industry. I see a near future, within two decades, where ships can travel to and from Mars using biofuel grown in vats, converted from the planet’s atmosphere. Similar chemical approaches have been calculated to reduce the cost of a Mars mission by an order of magnitude. Instead of having to carry the fuel needed for a return trip, fuel can be created right on the Martian surface.

In this future, on the surface of Mars, greenhouses and bioreactors are built to grow plants and microorganisms used to create not only fuel but plastics and other materials used to support a permanent outpost. Rather than bringing all of the needed materials from Earth, the raw materials can largely be grown on the Red Planet.

If a Mars colonists needs a new chair, he can 3D print one from materials grown in the vats, rather than importing that mass from Earth.

One of my 3D printers creating facemasks for people in the medical industry. The plastic you see here was made from corn starch.

Please keep in mind that these benefits are not limited to the space industry. While I love the space industry and all of the potential that it represents, I also use this as a proxy for moving industry forward here on Earth. The same technologies used to support a Mars colony can be used to benefit a remote African village. In the case of bioenergy, the combination of enzymes and bacteria is already being used to convert cow manure into methane. This technology is utilized in the U.S. to create electricity on dairy farms, and the same technology is being used in Africa for the same purpose.

There is a misunderstanding about economics in our time that the world is a “fixed pie” — that there is a certain amount of wealth in the world, and it is the job of someone to redistribute that wealth. This is a fallacy that any thinking person ought to reject.

The reason we have so much wealth in the world today is that great men and women have created that wealth. Vaccines, electricity, gasoline and the internal combustion engine were not created because young people protested that the world is unfair. They were created because men and women used their minds, studied the world, and created new technology. They created things that had not existed before. These are the men and women creating the “pie” factories, and it is men and women like them who move the world forward.

And when we look to the natural world, there is an incredible potential that is being largely ignored. Spider silk is five times stronger than steel. The photosynthetic pathways of plants use a solar-powered electrical current. DNA operates as a molecular computer. There is so much natural technology in our own backyards, and yet we starve amidst abundance. Imagine what the world would be like if we used this technology which is right there for us.

In the year 2100, I hope that I get to see a world with science and technology beyond what I can imagine in the year 2020. I hope I get to see skyscrapers that are ten times taller, airplanes built from lightweight biomaterials, and shuttles going to a from the surface of Mars powered by algae biomass. I hope I see a world overflowing with science, technology and prosperity.

For the sake of keeping this article short, I’ve only begun to scratch the surface. My hope is that I will reach men and women of both science and industry and show the potential to bring the world forward and create a better future.

Thank you for reading my article. If you would like to know more about me, feel free to send me a private message, or leave a comment. As of the writing of this article, I am out of work due to the Covid-19 lockdown, but I am looking to join a research lab where I can come to work in a place where I can be passionate about my career. I currently live in Western New York, but I am very open to relocating, especially to California or Texas.

Sincerely,
~Gregory S Muhs
BS Biotechnology and Molecular Bioscience 2015
Rochester Institute of Technology
linkedin.com/in/gregorymuhs

This article has also been published on LinkdIn
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/untapped-eden-biotechs-third-branch-gregory-muhs

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