Created by Omri Amirav-Drory, General Partner at NFX
If there is one thing I noticed at JPM this year, it’s that “Techbio” has arrived.
You could spot us from a mile away, compared to old biotechs:
VCs everywhere were saying they invented the word techbio – a sure sign that the energy is real. Others are trying to remember where the word really came from:
(And thanks to @DrSynbio for giving me the opportunity to remind myself I still own tech.bio. It has redirected to NFX since I joined in 2021. I have no plans to give it up any time soon.)
All the JPM chatter made me think back on the history of techbio as I can remember it. It made me think that someone should write it all down. And who better to write it all down than all of us.
The NFX Bio team and I took a first stab at some major milestones. But we want you to fill in the blanks. Add what you’re seeing. Put the movement together so everyone can see how big this is getting.
Submit New Timeline Event / Suggest Edit Here
| Date | Event | Summary | Significance | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1953 | Watson and Crick describe DNA’s double helix structure | Watson and Crick describe DNA’s double helix structure | Discovery laying foundations for ability to read, write, edit biological code | |
1970 | Restriction Enzymes Discovered | Restriction enzymes discovered to cleave DNA at specific sites into discernible fragments | Showing biological ability to manipulate code | |
1975 | Mayfield invests in Genentech | Mayfield invests in Genentech | Major silicon valley investor involved the precursor to techbio movement | |
1976 | Genentech is founded | Genentech is founded | The grandfather of techbio companies | |
1977 | Sanger method for DNA sequencing developed | Frederick Sanger successfully develops the “sanger” method for DNA sequencing | Furthering ability to “read” biology’s code | |
1981 | Development of ‘Shotgun’ Sequencing | Development of shotgun sequencing | Faster methods for DNA sequencing | |
1983 | Polymerase Chain Reaction ‘PCR’ Invented | PCR invented | PCR allows us to copy DNA in large quantities in a short period of time, boosts pace of genetic research | |
1987 | Menlo Ventures founds and incubates Gilead Sciences | Among the first VC-bio incubations | early demonstration of VC and biology coming together | |
1990 | EST Genome Sequencing | Craig Venter invents EST genome sequencing “shortcut” | Speed of sequencing increases | |
1990 | Human Genome Project Kicks Off | Human Genome project kicks off | First major government funding project | |
1998 | Illumina Founded | Illumina founded | Major genome sequencing hardware developer | |
1998 | Competition Between HGP and Venter Intensifies | Dr. Venter joins new company aiming to sequence human genome in 3 years (later becomes Celera) | sparks competition between HGP and private endeavor | |
2000 | Lux Capital Founded | Lux Capital Founded | ||
2001 | First Draft of HGP Completed | First draft of human genome project completed | ||
2001 | ARTIS Ventures Founded | ARTIS ventures founded | ||
2002 | “Clickable Genome” Concept Emerges | “clickable genome” concept emerges | language of technology united with biology | |
2003 | “Working Draft” of Human Genome Completed | “working draft” of human genome completed | ||
2004 | Khosla Ventures Founded | |||
2006 | Solexa’s Genome Analyzer | Solexa’s Genome Analyzer allows scientists to rapidly sequence 1Gb of data in single run | Company later acquired by Illumina. Evidence that cost is going down and scale is going up for “reading bio” | |
2006 | Khosla’s First Online Mentions of “Biorefineries” | Khosla Ventures’ website first mentions “biorefineries” | ||
2007 | Genome Sequencing Drops Below $10M | Cost of human genome sequencing drops below $10 million | first major “cliff” in terms of sequencing cost | |
2008 | Compound VC Founded | Compound VC founded | ||
2008 | Ginkgo Bioworks Founded | Ginkgo Bioworks founded | ||
2010 | Moderna Founded | Moderna founded | Seeding the beginning of the bioplatform revolution…techbio history in the name itself “modified” “RNA” | |
2010 | Hummingbird Ventures Founded | Hummingbird Founded | ||
2011 | Doudna and Charpentier Collaborate on CRISPR | Douda and Charpentier begin collaboration to better understand CRISPR | Will CRISPR become the next revolutionary technology in techbio | |
2011 | Genome Compiler Founded | Genome Compiler Founded | One of the first Techbio startups, founded by Omri Amirav-Drory | |
2011 | Founding of Breakout Labs | Breakout labs, the precursor to Breakout Ventures, goes on to fund 50 companies at the intersection of tech and bio between 2012-2019 | Sign of increased investor support and interest in scientist-founded companies operating in techbio | |
2012 | Vinod Khosla’s “Do We Need Doctors or Algorithms” Essay | Codification of the intertwining of tech (AI) and healthcare. | ||
2012 | Founder’s Fund Highlights a Biotechnology Revolution | Founders Fund publishes a manifesto highlighting potential for a biotechnology revolution | Major technology investor doubles down on the power of biotechnology | |
2012 | Landmark CRISPR Paper Published | “Programmable Dual-RNA–Guided DNA Endonuclease in Adaptive Bacterial Immunity” published in Science | Doudna and Chapentier’s landmark paper lays out the workings of CRISPR-Cas9 system | |
2012 | Atomwise Trains CNN on Biological Data | Atomwise trains convolutional neural network on structure and function of biological data | Kicks off first wave of AI in bio | |
2012 | SynBioBeta Founded | John Cumbers founds SynBioBeta | Codifies the existence of tech bio scientific community | |
2013 | ARTIS Ventures Begins Using “Techbio” Internally | |||
2013 | Recursion Pharmaceuticals Founded | Recursion Pharmaceuticals founded | Major company in the techbio + AI space | |
2013 | Editas Medicine Founded | Editas Medicine founded | Major early CRISPR company | |
2013 | Twist Biosciences Founded | Twist Biosciences founded | Major player in techbio | |
2013 | Wing Venture Capital Founded | Wing Venture Capital Founded | ||
2014 | Obvious Ventures Founded | Obvious Ventures Founded | ||
2014 | Insight Partners Begins Actively Tracking Bio Companies | Insight Partners begins tracking life sciences companies | Major investor demonstrating interest in life sciences | |
2015 | NFX is Founded | NFX is founded | ||
2015 | Andreessen Horowitz Launches Bio Fund | Andreessen Horowitz launches first bio-specific fund | One of the largest tech focused firms raises bio scientific fund (three more to follow in 2017 and 2020) | |
2015 | 8VC Founded | 8VC founded | ||
2015 | Fifty Years is Founded | Fifty Years is founded | ||
2016 | Machine vision unlocks phenotypic drug discovery | Kicks off second wave of AI in bio | ||
2016 | Genome Compiler Acquired by Twist | Genome Compiler Acquired by Twist | ||
2016 | Breakout Ventures Founded | Breakout Ventures Founded | ||
2016 | “20-Percent Doctor Included” & Dr. Algorithm: Speculations of a Technology Optimist | Vinod Khosla’s in-depth examination of tech’s potential impacts on healthcare | Concept of a tech-enabled a “healthcare transition” matures | |
2016 | Solugen Founded | Solugen Founded | ||
2016 | Refactor Founded | Refactor founded | ||
2017 | Mammoth Biosciences is Founded | Mammoth Biosciences is founded (investment from NFX) | major CRISPR platform company | |
2017 | Menlo Ventures Pivots Back to Healthcare | Menlo Ventures Pivots back to healthcare investing with focus on technology and biology | ||
2017 | KdT Ventures Founded | KdT Ventures Founded | ||
2017 | $100M to GRAIL from Bezos & Gates | Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates contribute $100 million to GRAIL’s series A | More tech investors showing conviction in techbio | |
2017 | Civilization Ventures Founded | Civilization Ventures Founded | ||
2018 | Tech.bio Founded | Our techbio fund: Tech.bio founded | One of the first techbio specific funds | |
2018 | Term ‘TechBio’ Becomes Popular | Term TechBio becomes a thing | This leads to perspective change: we see biology and technology as intertwined | |
2018 | Twist Bioscience Goes Public | Twist Bioscience IPO | Major IPO in the techbio space | |
2018 | CRISPR Controversially Used to Edit Human Embryos | CRISPR babies controversy in China | CRISPR used to edit human embryos | |
2019 | Mayfield Publishes Biology as Technology Will Reinvent ‘Trillion Dollar Industries’ | Mayfield publishes “Biology as technology will reinvent Trillion Dollar Industries” | ||
2020 | Doudna & Charpentier Awarded Nobel Prize | Doudna and Charpentier awarded Nobel prize in chemistry for discovery of CRISPR/Cas9 system | ||
2020 | COVID Pandemic | COVID pandemic hits | Need for techbio tools urgently increases during vaccine search | |
2020 | mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine Approved | mRNA COVID-19 vaccines gain emergency approval by FDA | First FDA approval of techbio-based treatment on large scale | |
2021 | Investments Surge After mRNA Vaccine Success | Techbio investment surges amidst success of mRNA platforms | ||
2021 | ARTIS Ventures Granted Trademark for the Term “Techbio” | process began in 2019, finalized in 2021 | ||
2021 | Ginkgo Bioworks Goes Public | Ginkgo Bioworks goes public with a $15 billion valuation | reflecting the rise of industrial techbio | |
2022 | AlphaFold Solves Protein Folding | AlphaFold solves protein folding | major computing milestone that will enable next generation of techbio | |
2022 | Decodingbio Newsletter Launched | newsletter helping centralize the techbio community and curating news within the space | A collection of investors and scientist founders come together to keep the techbio community up to date. | |
2022 | “Truly Complete” Human Genome Sequence | the first “truly complete” human genome sequence announced | gaps eliminated | |
2022 | Dimension Capital Founded | Dimension Capital founded | ||
2022 | Generative AI Wave in Bio Begins | Beginning of Generative AI wave in bio | ||
2023 | “Writing Biology” Powered by Generative AI | AI used to generate new proteins using language of biology | a new layer of “writing biology” powered by generative AI | |
2024 | Crossing $100 Genome Threshold? | $100 genome soon to be threshold crossed? | ||
2024 | Let’s make history together… |
The History of Techbio Timeline [Visualized]
*Some dates are approximate