During the Singularity Summit in Seville this year (12-14 March) I had the opportunity to interview Raymond McCauley, a world renowned biotechnology expert who holds the chair of the biotech track at Singularity University and was the founder of the Biocurious biohacking space. Raymond provided a very thought provoking speech at the SU Summit regarding the role that biotechnologies play in shaping the world economy and the recent advancements that are progressively putting biotech in a new and enticing light for business creation and opportunities. Indeed, when we asked Raymond about how biotechnologies are going to impact future startup and businesses, he explained that the change is already evident in the world around us. Already almost a third of the world business economy is comprised of biotech applications, medicine being an obvious player but also agriculture and even more intriguingly manufacture and energy are coming out with new and innovative ways to exploit this rather different branch of technology for their goals. And the rules of the game are changing as new entrepreneurs are capable of entering the field with little more then their proactivity and will. The times have changed from when you needed big corporations or academical institutions to back your initiative up with resources or costly machinery. Nowadays, thanks to technology’s advancements, the entry bar has been lowered and a democratization of biotechnologies is undergoing to let an increasing number of people, who would otherwise never have the chance to tinker with the biological, have the opportunity to be engaged in this emerging field.
Raymond MacCauley
© RIPRODUZIONE RISERVATA
