Securing America’s Biotech Future

>> America's at a crossroads. Biology is becoming a general-purpose technology with significant implications for the US economy, national security, and individual flourishing. While many people might see biotechnology as just medicines and foods, biotech has a wide-ranging promise in everything from material science, computer hardware, even fashion. China has embraced biotechnology with an all-of-nation approach, investing billions and realizing great leaps forward. The United States risks stalling, taking for granted our historical leadership in biotechnology. Today, the US can either fall behind or take real action now to secure biotechnology's future. In the 1960s, the Apollo program showcased America's ability to achieve something thought previously impossible. We did it again with the Human Genome Project, completed in 2001. Unlocking genetic medicine. Biotechnology today demands similarly bold efforts. Three. Actions are most important and necessary to create a democratic and flourishing American bioeconomy, with foundational investments securing biology and accessibility. First, we must invest aggressively in the foundations of biotechnology from getting better at building DNA to making real cellular-scale operating systems to large language laboratories and even the standards underlying the bioeconomy. Time is short. The world's most advanced biotech facilities are now in Shenzhen, China, and are fully operating. To compete and win the US must create national laboratories purpose-built for 21st-century biotechnology. Yes, CRISPR, gene editing and biofuels are essential, but they're also becoming decades old. We need national biotechnology accelerators that ensure US researchers and industry have access to world-leading tools for measuring, modeling, and making. With biology, we should direct and fund the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a crown jewel that enables our entire economy to launch a bio measurement laboratory. The NIST Bio Measurement Laboratory will define and create the essential weights and measures that underlie the bio economy. Such standards will help slash development and production timelines, increase trust in bio technologies and enable swift and effective responses to consumer demands and biological threats. Second, we must secure biology. Really start by establishing biological intelligence or bio int so that we are never again surprised by a biological threat. Just like cameras and airplanes and satellites help win the Cold War by letting us see behind the iron curtain to secure biology, we must be able to see behind biology's molecular curtain so as to best inform our bio strategies and bio defenses. A National Biodefense Institute is also needed to leverage biotechnology itself in securing biology, leaping ahead so that all Americans have reliable access to next-generation medical countermeasures from diagnostics and treatments for any infectious disease. Third and finally, make biotechnology accessible to all from students to professionals. Start by creating a national library network, public biotech libraries that give all Americans the option of learning about bio and biotechnology. Keep going by expanding programs like Bio Builder and IGEM to train interested students in synthetic biology, preparing them for jobs in biomanufacturing, biosecurity and leadership. More broadly, increase pay caps for biotech experts serving in government, starting with the departments of defense and the intelligence communities, push to market by launching bio bonds that incentivize private investment in full-scale biomanufacturing. Let's target a hundred billion dollars of private capital for making bio factories within a decade. And in doing that, clarify that the Buy Do Act guarantees public domain options for biotech innovations, helping to level the playing field against international IP theft. We can bring it all together by creating bio.gov. One-stop shopping website for coordinating policies across all federal agencies and elevating biotech as a core American priority. The stakes are clear. Lacking action, America will cede its leadership in biotechnology to our rivals. History has shown that bold action wins out, moving swiftly and at scale. Now will ensure the next century of biotech innovation is led by a uniquely American bioeconomy that not only advances life better medicines, foods and materials, but also liberty and the pursuit of happiness.