With agricultural feedstocks as the basis of a new bioeconomy, Asia is poised to become a powerhouse. And for once it’s an opportunity both for most developed markets and countries still relying heavily on agriculture.

Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani recently forayed into genome testing, the latest addition to a plan to accelerate bio-innovation that will eventually benefit India’s rural communities. China already contributes about 10% of synthetic biology related publications globally. As our focus on China at FFA 2023 will attest, the agrifood biotech sector is buzzing with innovation.

Does size matter? Yes, but…. as anecdotal as it may seem, enzymes play an essential role in the biomanufacturing of many industrial products. And the reality is that Asia does not (yet) have a powerful enzyme design and engineering platform, a key enabler of this bioeconomy.

But this may change soon, with Dr Akbar Vahidi and Dr Peyman Salehian, the co-founders of Singapore-based Allozymes, and past winners of the Future Food Asia Award.

Combining the power of data and biology, Allozymes is developing a next-gen synthetic biology platform, leveraging ultra-high throughput microfluidics.

For all aspiring ‘agripreneurs’ and FFAA23 applicants, here are the 4 principles that have guided Allozymes’ founders so far.