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]
Watson and Crick describe DNA’s double helix structure
1953
Restriction Enzymes Discovered
Mayfield invests in Genentech
1975
Genentech is founded
1976
Menlo Ventures Founds and Incubates Gilead Sciences
1987
Sanger method for DNA sequencing developed
Development of ‘Shotgun’ Sequencing
Polymerase Chain Reaction ‘PCR’ Invented
EST Genome Sequencing
Human Genome Project Kicks Off
1990
Illumina Founded
1998
Competition Between HGP and Venter Intensifies
Lux Capital Founded
2000
First Draft of HGP Completed
2001
ARTIS Ventures Founded
2001
“Clickable Genome” Concept Emerges
2002
“Working Draft” of Human Genome Completed
2003
Khosla Ventures Founded
2004
Solexa’s Genome Analyzer
2006
Khosla’s First Online Mentions of “Biorefineries”
2006
Genome Sequencing Drops Below $10M
2007
Compound VC Founded
2008
Ginkgo Bioworks Founded
Moderna Founded
Hummingbird Ventures Founded
2010
Breakout Labs Founded
2011
Doudna and Charpentier Collaborate on CRISPR
Genome Compiler Founded
2011
Landmark CRISPR Paper Published
2012
Founder’s Fund Highlights a Biotechnology Revolution
2012
Atomwise Trains CNN on Biological Data
2012
SynBioBeta Founded
2012
Vinod Khosla’s “Do We Need Doctors or Algorithms?” Essay
2012
Recursion Pharmaceuticals Founded
Editas Medicine Founded
Twist Biosciences Founded
ARTIS Ventures begins using term “Techbio” internally
2013
Wing Venture Capital Founded
2013
Obvious Ventures Founded
2014
Insight Partners Begins Actively Tracking Bio Companies
NFX is Founded
2015
Andreessen Horowitz Launches Bio Fund
8VC Founded
2015
Fifty Years is Founded
2015
Genome Compiler Acquired by Twist
Breakout Ventures Founded
2016
Solugen Founded
“20 Percent Doctor Included & Dr. Algorithm: Speculations and Musings of a Technology Optimist” Published
Refactor Founded
2016
Mammoth Biosciences is Founded
2017
Menlo Ventures Pivots Back to Healthcare
2017
KdT Ventures Founded
2017
$100M to GRAIL from Bezos & Gates
2017
Civilization Ventures Founded
2017
Tech.bio Founded
2018
Term ‘TechBio’ Becomes Popular
2018
Twist Bioscience Goes Public
CRISPR Controversially Used to Edit Human Embryos
2018
Mayfield Publishes Biology as Technology Will Reinvent ‘Trillion Dollar Industries’
2019
Doudna & Charpentier Awarded Nobel Prize
2020
COVID Pandemic
2020
mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine Approved
2020
Investments Surge After mRNA Vaccine Success
2021
Ginkgo Bioworks Goes Public
2021
ARTIS Ventures Granted Trademark for the term Techbio
AlphaFold Solves Protein Folding
Decoding Techbio Newsletter Launched
“Truly Complete” Human Genome Sequence
2022
Dimension Capital Founded
2022
Generative AI Wave in Bio Begins
2022
“Writing Biology” Powered by Generative AI
2023
Crossing $100 Genome Threshold?
2024
*Some dates are approximate
