Table 1 Biofoundry service/capability category and examples
Type | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
Tier 1 | A service that supports the use of individual pieces of automated equipment. | Access to liquid handling robots for training users. |
Tier 2 | A service focusing on an individual stage of the DBTL cycle. | Though most biofoundry services require the combination of two or more stages in the DBTL cycle, Tier 2 is focused on activities related to a single stage. For example, a biofoundry provides a protein sequence library designed by Protein MPNN25. |
Tier 3 | A service combining two or more DBTL stages, such as DB, BT, TL, or LD. | Most of the heavily used services in the biofoundry belong to this tier. For example, AI model (L) training followed by protein design (D). If target gene sequence and structure are provided; the service of “protein library construction” involves simple construction (B) and sequence verification (T). |
Tier 4 | A service supporting the full DBTL cycle. | Example projects could include applying the full DBTL cycle to conduct research projects such as “Greenhouse gas bioconversion enzyme discovery and engineering”; “Plastic degradation microorganism engineering”; “Production of functional materials for food/medicine” etc. A good example of the DBTL cycle in Tier 4 is demonstrated by the SYNBIOCHEM Biofoundry26, which highlights the power of biofoundries in discovering novel chemical pathways and optimizing product titer during early-stage scale-up. In the healthcare sector, high-demand areas such as Cell Line Development and Antibody Discovery could also serve as Tier 4 examples. |
