Wuhu Kicks Off! Striving for a Synthetic Biology Industry Scale of 100 Billion RMB by 2030!

Wuhu City will be a key area for Anhui Province's synthetic biology industry layout.

[SynBioCon] learned that on September 30, the Wuhu Science and Technology Bureau officially released the "Wuhu City Synthetic Biology Industry Development Action Plan (2024–2027),"aiming to seize new opportunities from the global biotech revolution and technological industry transformation, accelerate the construction of a synthetic biology industry ecosystem, and make Wuhu a new engine as a sub-center city within the province. This action plan outlines a clear blueprint for the development of Wuhu's synthetic biology industry.

Wuhu will focus on innovation, cultivating enterprises as the main theme, and utilizing scenarios as the driving force, to fully layout key industry tracks. By promoting the landing of industrialization projects, creating industry-specific parks, accelerating key technological breakthroughs, and measures like these, it will push the deep integration of innovation chains, industrial chains, capital chains, and talent chains. By 2027, the goal is to convert a number of synthetic biology research results with industrial value, attract and cultivate over 100 synthetic biology technology companies with core industry technologies, and grow the city's synthetic biology industry to over 50 billion RMB, making it a leading synthetic biology innovation hub in China.By 2030, the industry's scale will further expand to 100 billion RMB.

The plan outlines six key development directions, including biomaterials, biopharmaceuticals, bio-agriculture, bio-food, bio-equipment manufacturing, and bio-platform tools.In the field of biomaterials, it will focus on developing biodegradable materials like polylactic acid and lactic acid; in biopharmaceuticals, it will develop diagnostic and therapeutic drug reagents and medical device products for biomedical-related disease screening and recovery; in bio-agriculture, it will research key technologies such as synthetic microbial community optimization; in bio-food, it will work on synthetic bio-manufacturing replacements for functional active materials like polysaccharides and peptides; in bio-equipment manufacturing, it will focus on developing high-throughput automated gene synthesis equipment centered around DNA synthesis and sequencing technologies; in bio-platform tools, it will conduct research on enzyme and protein molecular design and transformation, and attract companies focused on chassis cell transformation, DNA element design, big data, artificial intelligence, and intelligent manufacturing equipment.

To ensure the smooth implementation of the action plan, Wuhu will take a series of actions, including mapping out the industry landscape and initiating "door-knocking" actions to promote the construction of key high-level biomanufacturing projects; laying out a batch of key projects to accelerate the introduction of quality projects and companies; cultivating a batch of seed enterprises and establishing a "seed player pool" for the synthetic biology industry; building R&D pilot and innovation platforms to support universities and companies leading the construction of various R&D platforms; implementing key technical research projects with a focus on common technologies like protein molecular design; planning for specialized synthetic biology parks and establishing a "2+N" park layout model; strengthening technological financial support by setting up a synthetic biology industry fund; cultivating a talent pipeline for synthetic biology by establishing a high-end talent pool; building synthetic biology application scenarios to explore synthetic biological methods as alternatives to chemical methods; and organizing a series of synthetic biology events to identify outstanding "seed" enterprises and form an industry alliance.

To ensure the successful advancement of the action plan, Wuhu will strengthen organizational leadership, with the Municipal Science and Technology Bureau taking the lead in laying out the synthetic biology industry; improving policy guarantees by leveraging government-guided funds and government-financed guarantee institutions; deepening education and outreach to enhance synthetic biology technology science popularization and promote exchanges between synthetic biology and various sectors.

The release of this action plan marks a solid step forward for Wuhu City in the field of synthetic biology. In the future, Wuhu will seize opportunities and ride the momentum to create a leading synthetic biology innovation hub in China, injecting new strong momentum into the construction of a provincial sub-center city.