GEN – Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News

Anything that lives, even in the figurative sense, embodies a complex order—that is, an order in which a stable and optimized whole depends on the interactions of distinctive, specialized, and interdependent parts. As this issue of GEN demonstrates, complex orders are emerging in several biotech/life sciences enterprises: phage therapy research, biobanking, biopharma cluster development, and bioprocessing. In each of these enterprises, the idea is to orchestrate complex interactions. In phage therapy research, the interactions are among pathogens, phages, and the microorganism (the patient); in biobanking, they are among researchers, specimen providers, technology developers, and standards bodies. In biopharma cluster development, they are among economic development agencies, life sciences companies, and real estate developers. Finally, in bioprocessing, the orchestration of complex interactions finds its highest expression through dynamic monitoring and control of upstream and downstream activities. Although the word “orchestration” suggests that bioprocessing of this kind is an art, it is really more of a science, depending as it does on digital twins and artificial intelligence technology.