Popular media coverage of biotechnology is saturated with talk of “revolution” — the time when genetic engineering, synthetic biology, and personalized medicine will change our lives in more ways than we can imagine. These technologies, we are assured, are right around the corner. But having heard such promises for well over a decade, I find myself asking:
Are we there yet?
In the past few decades, biology and medicine have overcome problems previously thought insurmountable. But in a world where we expect the exponential progress predicted by Moore's Law, is biotechnology living up to the name "revolution"?
I think it has a way to go.