We’re entering an era of artificial biological intelligence — and, according to scientist Adrian Woolfson, the UK has a unique opportunity to be world-leading. But the country will have to move fast to capitalise on the rapid advances of synthetic biology, which goes beyond gene editing, or risk becoming irrelevant.
“I think the UK has a unique and unprecedented opportunity to jump on this and to make it the UK’s principal industry and to lead the world,” he says. “Because if we don’t, then we’re just going to fall behind.”
