Release date: 2014-05-16
The famous startup incubator Y Combinator is moving into the field of biotechnology. Will biotechnology be the new wave of the future after the computer?
Y Combinator is a well-known startup incubator. Y Combinator selects promising computer technology entrepreneurial ideas from a competition each year, investing tens of thousands of dollars in it and a dedicated space in Silicon Valley in exchange for equity.
Y Combinator is considered one of the most successful startup accelerators and has successfully funded several successful companies such as Scribd and Dropbox. My wife advanced to the finals a few years ago, so I know the process of this option is very competitive and interesting.
Now Y Combinator is doing something new: planning to invest in biotech startups. At first glance this may not be a good idea, because biotech investments are more risky and more expensive than the IT industry. Chemjobber, a well-known chemical blogger, once rightly pointed out on Twitter that biotech's net return on investment is negative. However, I personally feel that investing in biotechnology is a promising idea, and I think Y Combinator's move is very futuristic, just like saving money to a bank for future use.
As the chairman of the incubator said: “Biotechnology can't move millions of dollars to get a little bit of results. So six years ago, our model was not suitable for biotechnology. However, this situation is very different. We pay attention to it. In the past year, more and more promising biotech companies are asking about Y Combinator. I think biotech startups have a real trend and they are becoming more and more like software startups. In time, biotech companies working like software companies are likely to become commonplace. We want to lead this trend."
I think he is right. In the past decade, two important developments have made the future of “garage biotechnology†seem promising: one is that the cost of DNA sequencing has dropped dramatically, even faster than Moore's Law. The second is the development of DIY biotechnology, as one of my mentor, Freeman Dyson, imagined a few years ago. Marcus Watson used a whole book to describe the development of DIY biology and documented the rise of amateur biophiles around the world. Thanks to forward-looking work like Y Combinator, these amateurs are likely to eventually find a place to use for their ideas.
In fact, biotechnology equipment and technology have become very cheap in the past few years. The emergence of a "bios" "Jobs" or "Bill Gates" is no longer a daydream, they may be in their own " The garage is based on biotechnology to discover a revolutionary new diagnostic method or treatment.
We are entering a new era in which young people can slap their own genetic engineering, just like young people in the 1970s drumming computer software and hardware. Y Combinator plans to invest $120,000 in biotechnology, which should be enough to buy used equipment and kits on eBay. Now they also plan to focus on biotechnology research that benefits from computer software because it seems to be less expensive. If I choose a specific bet to place a bet, I will probably put the bet on diagnostic techniques, because treatment techniques are usually much more complicated and have many uncertainties. I think they should also consider developing common tools to make complex work such as new drug development faster and easier. Because the history of biological development has fully proved that tools and ideas are as important to the scientific and technological revolution.
Biomedical diagnostics or treatments need to face a more complex legal framework than new computer products, and the final marketization process will be much more complicated. But don't worry about this until new ideas are made. In fact, Y Combinator's planned investment work will not only accelerate the development of bioscience and technology. For the wide application of biotechnology, Y Combinator will also change the public's views on relevant laws and social issues. In order to truly realize “garage biotechnologyâ€, it is not enough to rely on a scientific revolution. It also requires a revolution in society, law, and intellectual property. The former is now foreseen, and the latter is still far away. The two complement each other.
However, what is most exciting for me is that Y Combinator's new initiative hopes to inspire young people's interest in new biotech ideas. The computer revolution will not come without tens of thousands of young people hiding their parents from interest groups and smashing electronic hardware and software in their kitchens or garages. The development of science and technology is very similar to Darwin's theory of evolution, so the idea is much better. The more new ideas are available for people to test, eliminate, or develop, the future of a certain scientific and technological paradigm will have more opportunities to develop. As Linus Pauling puts it, “If you want to have a good idea, you have to have a lot of ideas first, and then throw away those that are not so good.†Y Combinator is encouraging people to generate many ideas, I I wish you all the best.
About the author:? Ashdod Tosh Qiaojialaika (Ashutosh Jogalekar) was a chemist, he was also interested in the history and philosophy of science. He believes that science is part of human practice, which is both rigorous and comprehensive.
Source: Global Science
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