title: The commercialization of genome-editing technologies.
abstract: The emergence of new gene-editing technologies is profoundly transforming human therapeutics, agriculture, and industrial biotechnology. Advances in clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) have created a fertile environment for mass-scale manufacturing of cost-effective products ranging from basic research to translational medicine. In our analyses, we evaluated the patent landscape of gene-editing technologies and found that in comparison to earlier gene-editing techniques, CRISPR has gained significant traction and this has established dominance. Although most of the gene-editing technologies originated from the industry, CRISPR has been pioneered by academic research institutions. The spinout of CRISPR biotechnology companies from academic institutions demonstrates a shift in entrepreneurship strategies that were previously led by the industry. These academic institutions, and their subsequent companies, are competing to generate comprehensive intellectual property portfolios to rapidly commercialize CRISPR products. Our analysis shows that the emergence of CRISPR has resulted in a fivefold increase in genome-editing bioenterprise investment over the last year. This entrepreneurial movement has spurred a global biotechnology revolution in the realization of novel gene-editing technologies. This global shift in bioenterprise will continue to grow as the demand for personalized medicine, genetically modified crops and environmentally sustainable biofuels increases. However, the monopolization of intellectual property, negative public perception of genetic engineering and ambiguous regulatory policies may limit the growth of these market segments.
authors.affiliation: a Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology , Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge , MA , USA.|b Biomaterials Innovation Research Center, Division of Biomedical Engineering , Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School , Cambridge , MA , USA.
authors.forename: Katelyn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Brinegar
authors.affiliation: a Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology , Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge , MA , USA.|b Biomaterials Innovation Research Center, Division of Biomedical Engineering , Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School , Cambridge , MA , USA.|c Harvard Medical School and Wellman Center for Photomedicine , Massachusetts General Hospital , Cambridge , MA , USA.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: K Yetisen
authors.affiliation: b Biomaterials Innovation Research Center, Division of Biomedical Engineering , Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School , Cambridge , MA , USA.
authors.forename: Sun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: b Biomaterials Innovation Research Center, Division of Biomedical Engineering , Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School , Cambridge , MA , USA.
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vallillo
authors.affiliation: a Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology , Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge , MA , USA.|b Biomaterials Innovation Research Center, Division of Biomedical Engineering , Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School , Cambridge , MA , USA.
authors.forename: Guillermo U
authors.initials: GU
authors.lastname: Ruiz-Esparza
authors.affiliation: d Department of Radiology, Division of Cardiovascular Imaging , Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital , Boston , MA , USA.|e The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia , PA , USA.
authors.forename: Anand M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Prabhakar
authors.affiliation: a Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology , Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge , MA , USA.|b Biomaterials Innovation Research Center, Division of Biomedical Engineering , Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School , Cambridge , MA , USA.|f Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University , Boston , MA , USA.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khademhosseini
authors.affiliation: a Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology , Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge , MA , USA.|c Harvard Medical School and Wellman Center for Photomedicine , Massachusetts General Hospital , Cambridge , MA , USA.
authors.forename: Seok-Hyun
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Yun
mesh_terms: D001709:Biotechnology; D064112:Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats; D018556:Crops, Agricultural; D000072669:Gene Editing; D005818:Genetic Engineering
keywords: Biotechnology; CRISPR; gene editing; entrepreneurship; business; investments