The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology announced the top 10 promising bio technologies for 2025 on the 20th. Promising bio technologies are those that can be technically or industrially realized within the next 5 to 10 years and are expected to have a high technological and industrial ripple effect in various fields.
This year's selected promising technologies reflect the trend of changing from traditional repetitive experiments and observational research to data-driven predictions and inferences in bio research. Technologies such as human immunome technology and motile living biobots are expected to contribute significantly to technological advancements in various fields, while early diagnosis of multiple cancers, anti-aging antibody treatments, and bio foundation models have high industrial demand. It was analyzed that the AI-designed gene editors also have high technical and industrial ripple effect.
Human immunome technology is expected to enhance human immunity by creating a global immune database and building an AI model of the human immune system based on high-resolution measurements of the human immune system. It can also analyze immune data from vaccinated individuals in real-time to predict their defense capabilities against pathogens.
The CRISPR gene editing technology has shown extensive ripple effects in gene therapies, molecular breeding, and synthetic biology, and AI-designed gene editors have been evaluated for broad application possibilities in precision biology, medicine, agriculture, and manufacturing.
Motile living biobots and BioNEMO, released by global semiconductor company NVIDIA earlier this year, along with the bio foundation model, were also listed as promising technologies. BioNEMO is an artificial intelligence model for new drug development, evaluated as a meaningful service that signals the start of the bio foundation model, which is expected to lead the future of bio research and development by transforming the paradigm of life science research into a data-driven approach, going beyond just new drug development.
The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to strengthen support across the entire cycle of systematic nurturing and commercialization of bio technology together with the national bio committee, which will be launched soon. Hwang Pan-sik, head of the Research and Development Policy Office at the Ministry of Science and ICT, noted, "As the technology in the bio sector advances dramatically, a path has opened to reach a new continent of knowledge that has been difficult to access, which encompasses complex phenomena of life. The Ministry of Science and ICT will continue to discover promising technologies that will play a pivotal role as the leading agency in nurturing advanced bio technologies and share them widely."