Reshma Shetty: Inventing the Future

Some see synthetic biology as the future of biotechnology, where standardized biological"parts" are used to simplify the creation biological machines that synthesize drugs or fuel or other useful compounds. One of the prominent scientists in this field is Reshma Shetty, who earned her Ph.D. in Biological Engineering from MIT earlier this year.

Shetty and three other MIT PhDs have teamed up with their adviser Tom Knight to found Ginko Bioworks, a biotech startup that is developing biological parts and technologies for engineered biological systems and helping other biotechs do the same. The "Do It Yourself Life" approach of Shetty and Ginko Bioworks were featured in a special report in Forbes about scientists and engineers who are "inventing the future".

She told Forbes that she is thinking beyond the relatively simple organisms bioengineers are currently creating:

"I don't want to spend a decade making a biofuel," says Shetty. "I want to spend five years doing something even bigger."

I suspect we'll be hearing more about Shetty and her work in the coming years.

Tags: Reshma Shetty, synthetic biology,