Rohan Silva: The genetic revolution is happening in a tiny office or coffee shop near you – Evening Standard

Epic. Thats the word that comes to mind when you visit the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. Its a vast campus just outside Cambridge, with hulking buildings full of data servers, genetic engineers and scientific researchers.

Theres a real sense of history at Sanger, which isnt surprising because its the place where British scientists working with a team in the US decrypted the entire human genetic code in 2003, a momentous event that was compared by President Clinton at the time to the feat of putting a man on the Moon.

Sequencing the human genome for the first time was a massive project it took 13 years, cost more than 2 billion, and involved thousands of scientists, which helps explains the gargantuan scale of the Sanger Institute itself.

But as weve seen with computers, over time technology rapidly falls in price and shrinks in size, and thats no different when it comes to genetics. Today the cost of decoding a whole human genome has dropped to less than 1,000 and can be done in a matter of hours.

As a result, genetic engineering technology is being opened up in much the same way that computers quickly went from something only wealthy organisations could afford to being affordable and commonplace.

This shift matters. All over London start-ups are now working on genetic technologies which previously would have been only possible for major corporations or public-sector bodies to do because the cost would have been prohibitive.

This bottom-up innovation grassroots genetics, if you will is happening in the most unlikely places.If you stroll up Hanbury Street, just off Brick Lane, you come to a fantastic coffee shop called Nude Espresso. Just next door is a little office the kind of place you might expect to find a small charity or arts organisation.

Instead its home to Desktop Genetics, which is at the forefront of genetic engineering, using cutting-edge artificial intelligence to make it easier to manipulate genes and edit DNA, opening up new possibilities for medicine and healthcare.

Its the same story with Lab Genius, founded by James Field, a young graduate from Imperial College. It has come up with a way of re-engineering protein that could enable the creation of entirely new types of drugs, cosmetics and even materials and its doing it all from a typical little office in London, not a fancy laboratory out of town.

Start-ups working on genetic technologies are popping up all over the capital which might sound scary, given media stories about the health risks of genetically engineered foods, as well as legitimate ethical questions about manipulating the building blocks of life.

As with other areas of technology, its vital that government oversight keeps pace and adjusts to the fact that these days its not just well-funded big businesses that are doing genetic science, its start-ups that dont have entire teams dedicated to navigating public sector bureaucracy.

But if we can do the right things to support this new wave of London innovation, we all stand to benefit. That requires unlocking more funding for these emerging start-ups, as well as providing shared equipment they may not be able to afford by themselves.

More high-paid jobs, new sources of economic growth and the next generation of medical treatments and drugs these are just some of the potential benefits of the grassroots genetics revolution happening all around us.

So the next time you walk past a non-descript office building in London, just think the future of genetics might be developed right under your nose.

If the summer football transfer rumours are to be believed, the Brazilian striker Neymar, pictured, is set to become the highest-paid footballer in the world if he leaves Barcelona and signs for Paris Saint-Germain. According to reports, Neymar will earn 36 million a year a whopping 300 per cent pay rise.

No doubt this salary will spark a debate about whether footballers are paid too much and whether there should be a salary cap, like in American sports. But the problem with a salary cap is that it doesnt restrict the amount of money coming into the sport from TV deals, tickets and merchandise it simply means the owners of sports clubs earn more because they can pay their players less.

Surely its better that the workers the footballers get to keep more of the money they generate from their labour rather than the men in suits making fatter profits off the back of their hard work? Its just a thought but I cant imagine Comrade Corbyn making the same point.

Visit link:
Rohan Silva: The genetic revolution is happening in a tiny office or coffee shop near you - Evening Standard