I am continuing to research Twist Biosciences $TWST, which manufactures synthetic DNA cheaper and faster than competitors.

Here are the applications for DNA that the average person should aware of:

Sustainability of the Planet

Almost everything we touch in our daily life comes from oil. Oil enables the modern human lifestyle. But there is a better way. We can use bio-processes with yeast, algae, and E. coli to ferment sugar and sustainably make all the chemicals that oil can make.

Everything that is currently plastic will be made of proteins in the future. All that protein engineering requires a lot of DNA to find that one perfect protein that has the functions that you're looking for.

When it comes to changing behavior, people tend to say they are driven by sustainability, but don't actually change unless it is also cheaper. The real driver of going through a fermentation process to make chemicals is that it is lower cost than using oil. You can buy the same chemicals cheaper if they are produced through fermentation that by processing oil.

One example is spider silk. If you put the genes of a spider into yeast, you can ferment sugar and make spider silk. Today you can buy jackets made of synthetic spider silk, but in the future we will make even more advanced products like planes out of this material.

Vanilla is the most popular flavor in the world. But if you want to make vanilla, you pretty much have to be within 10-20 degrees of the equator. There isn't enough physical space in the ideal regions to meet the world's demand for vanilla. So what we do instead is use oil to make imitation vanilla, which is still the same chemical compound. We are starting to do that with fermented sugar instead of oil.

I'd love to hear from anyone in the Commonstock community who has any first-hand experience using a product or process that was made from synthetic DNA / a fermentation process. My feeling is that it is already more common in our daily lives than we think.