University of Cambridge & NXT Fellow 2026
A quiet race is underway to control the infrastructure of the biological century. Artificial intelligence can now design proteins, enzymes, and biological systems at extraordinary speed, but turning those into real products still requires highly automated experimental platforms. Countries that build these capabilities first will shape the next generation of pharmaceutical, materials, and climate industries. India has signalled that it wants to compete. Through its BioE3 strategy and the BioRIDE programme, the government is building a national ecosystem of biofoundries and biomanufacturing hubs. The question is whether India can convert scientific talent and industrial capacity into a coordinated innovation system before global leadership consolidates elsewhere.
Artificial intelligence is beginning to transform biology.
Machine-learning models can now predict protein structures, design enzymes, and explore molecular combinations at an unprecedented scale. Instead of manually testing thousands of biological experiments, researchers can generate and optimise candidate designs computationally before moving to the laboratory.
But this acceleration creates a new bottleneck: experimental translation.
AI can design biological systems quickly, yet producing, testing, and scaling them still requires physical experimentation and industrial capability. The infrastructure that closes this gap (automated laboratories and biomanufacturing facilities) is becoming strategically important.
This is where biofoundries enter the picture.
Biofoundries are highly automated laboratories combining robotics, high-throughput experimentation, and data platforms to run thousands of biological experiments in parallel. They compress the “design–build–test–learn” cycle that underpins biotechnology innovation, turning biology into something closer to an engineering process.
Countries are beginning to treat them as strategic infrastructure.
The United States, the United-Kingdom and Singapore have all launched major initiatives to expand domestic biomanufacturing capacity, invested in synthetic biology platforms linked to startups and research institutes.
India is now attempting to position itself within this emerging landscape.
In 2024, the government introduced BioE3 Biotechnology for Economy, Environment and Employment, a policy designed to develop high-performance biomanufacturing capabilities. One of its central delivery mechanisms is the BioRIDE programme, which aims to bridge the persistent gap between laboratory research and industrial production by supporting biofoundries and shared biomanufacturing hubs.
The political logic behind this strategy is clear.
Biotechnology is expected to become a central pillar of the global bioeconomy, influencing sectors from pharmaceuticals and agriculture to sustainable materials and green chemicals. Countries that develop strong biomanufacturing ecosystems could shape the supply chains of these industries.
India already has some important advantages.
The country hosts a globally competitive pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing sector, a large pool of scientific talent, and a rapidly expanding biotechnology startup ecosystem supported by institutions such as the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and BIRAC.
However, India’s innovation system has historically struggled with translation: moving discoveries from academic laboratories into scalable industrial technologies.
Biofoundries are designed to address precisely this challenge.
By providing shared robotics platforms, standardised experimentation pipelines, and data infrastructure, they reduce the cost and time required to turn scientific ideas into commercial prototypes. For startups and researchers, this infrastructure can dramatically accelerate the path from discovery to manufacturing.
Artificial intelligence could further amplify this effect.
AI models are increasingly capable of designing proteins, enzymes, and metabolic pathways far more efficiently than traditional research methods. But those designs must still be tested experimentally. Biofoundries provide the physical engine that allows computational discovery to become real-world innovation.
For India, the opportunity lies in integrating these capabilities from the outset.
Rather than slowly building a biotechnology ecosystem over decades, the country could combine AI-driven biological design with modern biomanufacturing infrastructure, potentially accelerating its position in the global bioeconomy.
Whether this ambition succeeds will depend less on individual scientific breakthroughs than on coordination between universities, startups, industrial firms, and government programmes.
The countries that manage to build these ecosystems effectively will not just produce new biological products. They may shape the industrial foundations of the next scientific era.
India has now made clear that it intends to compete.
