Whitehouse Plan for a Bioeconomy

At the end of April 2012 President Obama announced its “Bioeconomy Blueprint,” a strategy to spur the development of biological products in the United States, including medical treatments, crops, biofuels, and more. The USA’s current bioeconomy is centered on genetic engineering, DNA sequencing, and automated high-throughput manipulations of biomolecules. The new strategy will embrace emerging technologies like synthetic biology, proteomics, and bioinformatics. The plan includes prioritizing R&D for high-risk/high-reward research; increasing commitment to translational research by, for example, calling upon funding agencies to support entrepreneurship; reforming the regulation process to reduce the amount of red tape between products and the market; preparing a scientifically trained workforce; and providing incentives for public-private partnerships. To read the plan, see Bioeconomy