- Capability group
- Biotechnology & Health Technologies
- Domain
- Critical Technology · Hard Power
- Identifier
- factbase.org/cap/GKT52EY61S
- Reference
- Synthetic biology Wikipedia
Papers
6.8k
2020–2024
Paper growth
+5%
2020–24 on 2015–19
Patent families
135.1k
2020–2024
Filed abroad
32%
families in more than one office
In the framework
What the capability covers and what it leaves to others, and the indicators it will be measured by.
Bounds
Covers engineering biology as capacity; its manufacturing expression sits with Biomanufacturing, its therapeutic expression with the therapeutics capability, and its misuse potential with National Security's defensive capability and the governance domain's oversight.
Lineage
Carried from v0.0 (formerly Synthetic biology) with the same identifier, absorbing Genetic engineering (retired): editing and engineering biology are one writing capacity, split in v0.0 by vintage of technique.
Indicators
- research publication share in synthetic biologyResearch
- gene editing patent familiesPatents
- engineered organism approvalsPending
Research
Papers classified to the capability, by year and by the nation of their authors' institutions, 2020–2024. Read from the v0.0 research topics Synthetic biology and Genetic engineering.
Papers by year
The five leading nations, papers by year
Share of papers, 2020–2024
Of papers with a known author nation; 26% have none and are left out.
- 1China20.2%1,312 papers
- 2United States15.6%1,010 papers
- 3India10.6%691 papers
- 4Germany5.4%353 papers
- 5United Kingdom4.3%277 papers
- 6South Korea3.5%225 papers
- 7Japan2.5%161 papers
- 8Spain2.1%139 papers
- 9Canada1.9%121 papers
- 10Netherlands1.9%121 papers
Leading institutions, 2020–2024
By fractional count: each paper divided among its authors' institutions.
- 1Jiangnan University109fractional papers
- 2Chinese Academy of Sciences58fractional papers
- 3East China University of Science and Technology26fractional papers
- 4Nanjing Tech University26fractional papers
- 5University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign24fractional papers
- 6Zhejiang University of Technology23fractional papers
- 7Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences23fractional papers
- 8Zhejiang University23fractional papers
- 9Shanghai Jiao Tong University23fractional papers
- 10Wageningen University & Research22fractional papers
Patents
Patent families by the nation of origin of their applicants and their earliest priority year, from the CPC and IPC classes the capability is read from. 2025 onwards is incomplete: families are published 18 months after priority.
Families by priority year
The five leading origins, families by year
50,696 applicants filed here in 2015–2024; the five largest held 2% of families (HHI 4 of 10,000: unconcentrated).
Share of families by origin, 2020–2024
- 1China70.3%95,048 families
- 2United States14.7%19,840 families
- 3South Korea3.6%4,864 families
- 4Japan3.5%4,706 families
- 5Germany1.0%1,380 families
- 6United Kingdom0.9%1,236 families
- 7Switzerland0.6%878 families
- 8France0.6%868 families
- 9Canada0.5%731 families
- 10Netherlands0.4%557 families
Applicants filing most internationally, 2015–2024
Families filed in more than one office, by applicant as the offices name them.
- 1UNIV CALIFORNIA1,314international families
- 2PIONEER HI BRED INT733international families
- 3INST NAT SANTE RECH MED607international families
- 4HOFFMANN LA ROCHE567international families
- 5HARVARD COLLEGE528international families
- 6UNIV LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR512international families
- 7UNIV TEXAS511international families
- 8MASSACHUSETTS INST TECHNOLOGY497international families
- 9CJ CHEILJEDANG CORP468international families
- 10UNIV PENNSYLVANIA461international families
Classification read
- C12N15/00 Genetic engineering: recombinant DNA, vectors, gene editing · 1.9m documents
- C12N9/22 Nucleases, including gene-editing enzymes · 110.3k documents
- C12N2310/20 CRISPR nucleic acids · 56.3k documents
- C12N5/10 Genetically modified cells · 46.7k documents
- A01K67/0275 Genetically modified animals · 56.9k documents
Shares inventions with
Capabilities whose classes the same families also fall in, by overlap (Jaccard).
- Advanced Therapeutics, Vaccines & Medical Countermeasures40,220 families · 0.364
- Biomanufacturing31,960 families · 0.282
- Genomics & Biological Data14,676 families · 0.147
- Nuclear Medicine & Radioisotope Technologies965 families · 0.011
Companies
50 companies in this capability, across 8 regions. The leading 12:
- 1Ginkgo BioworksLargest horizontal cell-programming platform, running automated foundries that design and engineer organisms for pharma, agriculture and industrial customers.Design
- 2Thermo Fisher ScientificDominant supplier of gene-editing reagents (TrueCut Cas9, GeneArt gene synthesis), cloning kits and lab instruments used across engineering biology.Equipment & materials
- 3Twist BioscienceLeading high-throughput silicon-based DNA synthesis provider supplying synthetic genes, oligo pools and libraries to synthetic biologists.Equipment & materials
- 4Danaher (Cytiva, Pall)Owns Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT), a top supplier of custom oligos, gBlocks and Alt-R CRISPR reagents, plus Aldevron for engineered nucleic acids and enzymes.Equipment & materials
- 5NovonesisWorld's largest industrial enzyme and microbial solutions company (merger of Novozymes and Chr. Hansen), engineering production strains and enzymes at global scale.Manufacture
- 6CortevaParent of Pioneer Hi-Bred (a top patent applicant in this capability) and a major CRISPR-Cas9 licensor for gene-edited crops in partnership with the Broad Institute.Research
- 7CRISPR TherapeuticsCo-developer with Vertex of Casgevy, the first approved CRISPR-based gene-editing medicine (2023).Research
- 8Intellia TherapeuticsPioneer of in vivo CRISPR editing delivered by lipid nanoparticles, co-founded by Jennifer Doudna.Research
- 9BGI GroupChina's largest genomics group, operating sequencing (via listed MGI Tech and BGI Genomics), China National GeneBank and synthetic genome projects such as the synthetic yeast Sc2.0 chromosomes.Research
- 10GenScript BiotechOne of the world's largest gene-synthesis and molecular-biology CROs, and parent of Bestzyme industrial synthetic biology.Equipment & materials
- 11IlluminaDominant DNA sequencing platform supplier, providing the read-out step of the design-build-test cycle in engineering biology.Equipment & materials
- 12Beam TherapeuticsLeader in base editing, a precision gene-editing technology that changes single DNA letters without double-strand breaks.Research
