Frances Arnold Quotes

Better biofuels are a really big deal. That means we can precisely engineer the molecules in the fuel chain and optimize them along the way. So, if all goes well, they're going to have designer bugs in warm vats that are eating and digesting sugars to excrete better biofuels. I guess that's better living through bugs.

I think future engineered species could be the source of food, hopefully a source of energy, environmental remediation and perhaps replacing the petrochemical industry.

Printing novel DNA might open the way to achievements once only conceivable in science fiction: designer bacteria that can produce new chemicals, such as more efficient fuels, or synthetic versions of our cells that make us resistant to the effects of radiation.

For example, in my own State of Arizona, an Israeli scientist is working with an Arizona company on a demonstration project involving a very fast-growing algae which can be used to power a biomass energy plan.

When most people talk about biofuels, they talk about using oils or grease from plants.

We're going to move from a commodity economy where you basically grow the same kind of crops - where a kernel of corn is a kernel of corn is a kernel of corn - to an ingredient economy where there will be a kernel of corn that will be designed for fuel, there will be a kernel of corn designed for livestock.

… biologists are now going to be directing evolution.

I'm very excited by biomass and biofuels. We have a company, KiOR, that turns biomass - for instance, wood chips - into gasoline. The potential value of this company is huge. It could compete with regular crude oil without subsidies.

I wanted to make enzymes that would solve human problems, not just problems for a cell that makes them.

What's different here is that we have now technologies that allow these life science companies to bypass classical breeding. That's what makes it both powerful and exciting.

We're moving from reading the genetic code to writing it.

Genome design is going to be a key part of the future. That's why we need fast, cheap, accurate DNA synthesis, so you can make a lot of iterations of something and test them.

Our increasing ability to alter our biology and open up the processes of life is now fueling a new cultural war.

Right now people are interested in genetic engineering to help the human race. That's a noble cause, and that's where we should be heading. But once we get past that - once we understand what genetic diseases we can deal with - when we start thinking about the future, there's an opportunity to create some new life-forms.

If we can produce more ethanol and bio-diesel to help fuel our vehicles, we will create jobs, boost local economies and produce cleaner burning fuels. This will keep dollars here at home where they can have a positive impact on our economy.

Almost everybody is enthusiastic about the promise of biotechnology to cure disease and to relieve suffering.

Certain food-based biofuels like biodiesel have always been a bad idea. Others like corn ethanol have served a useful purpose and essentially are obsoleting themselves.

It is clearly the case that programs in Europe and the United States that have increased biofuel production have contributed to the added demand for food.

Manufacturing takes place in very large facilities. If you want to build a computer chip, you need a giant semiconductor fabrication facility. But nature can grow complex molecular machines using nothing more than a plant.

What the public needs to understand is that these new technologies, especially in recombinant DNA technology, allow scientists to bypass biological boundaries altogether.

Just as gene drives can make mosquitos unfit for spreading the malaria parasite, they could concavely be designed with gene drives carrying cargo for delivering lethal bacterial toxins to humans.

We have created life.

In chemicals, Synthetic Genomics is one of my real loves.

If you get very fine, accurate, and inexpensive control over your genome, you can fundamentally change the kind of organism you are. You are extending human capacity.

The potential for synthetic biology and biotechnology is vast; we all have an opportunity to create the future together.