“Biotechnology is creating a new industrial revolution based on biology instead of petroleum. As biotech processes replace old rust-belt technologies, they are enabling a transformation from a petroleum-based economy to a bio-based economy.”

“In Synthetic Biology, the equivalent of a java virtual machine might be that you could create your own compartment in any type of cell, so your engineered DNA wouldn’t run willy-nilly.”

“Synthetic biology has huge potential. Indeed it has been said that it will heal us, feed us and fuel us. The UK can be world-leading in this emerging technology. That is why we are backing it with further [£60 million] investment today.”

“All living cells that we know of on this planet are ‘DNA software’-driven biological machines comprised of hundreds of thousands of protein robots, coded for by the DNA, that carry out precise functions,” said Venter. “We are now using computer software to design new DNA software.”

“If he [Bill Gates] were a teenager today, he says, he’d be hacking biology. “Creating artificial life with DNA synthesis. That’s sort of the equivalent of machine-language programming,” says Gates. “If you want to change the world in some big way, that’s where you should start — biological molecules.”

“We look at three things before deciding to invest in an industry – upcoming hyper growth, costs coming down to series-A scale, and cycle time coming down to something reasonable for a startup. All that has started to happen in biotech.”

“If I were 21 years old, I would go into biotechnology or genetic engineering.”

“..I think the biggest innovations of the twenty-first century will be the intersection of biology and technology. A new era is beginning, just like the digital one..”