Gallery: Move Over, Jony Ive—Biologists Are the Next Rock Star Designers

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    Maggie Shannon for WIRED
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    Ginkgo BioWorks is a biotech company whose biological engineers refer to themselves as organism designers.
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    Maggie Shannon for WIRED
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    As biology becomes more standardized, scientists are able to manipulate biological parts with the reproducibility typically reserved for engineering.
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    Maggie Shannon for WIRED
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    This opens an entire world of biological "design" and the considerations that come with that term.
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    Maggie Shannon for WIRED
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    Despite having trained as scientists, many synthetic biologists are slowly acknowledging that design thinking, in addition to technical understanding, is an essential skill.
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    Maggie Shannon for WIRED
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    The person who designs genetic architecture does so with aesthetic, utilitarian, and social considerations in mind.
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    Maggie Shannon for WIRED
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    Ginkgo is mostly producing flavors and fragrances made from strains of yeast.
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    Maggie Shannon for WIRED
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    As the field of synthetic biology matures, its responsibilities will begin to align more and more with those of designers.
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    Maggie Shannon for WIRED
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    Design will continue to be part of the synthetic biology conversation.
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    Maggie Shannon for WIRED
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    The company has a foundry in its Boston offices.
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    Maggie Shannon for WIRED
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    This allows scientists to spend more time thinking about how biology works instead of pipetting liquids.
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    Maggie Shannon for WIRED
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    The robots in the foundry take care of all the tedious lab tasks that usually fall to scientists.
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