We are living in a world where the merging of physical, digital and biological spheres is fundamentally transforming industries and societies. This convergence is often referred to as The Fourth Industrial Revolution and has been made possible through advances in areas such as AI and robotics, 3-D printing, the Internet of Things and quantum computing.
In the life sciences, the potential of the converging technologies of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science to dramatically improve our health and reduce disease burden costs was the focus of a seminal report by the US National Science Foundation and Department of Commerce two decades ago. The promise of this convergence has captivated global attention ever since.
This ‘third revolution’ in the life sciences calls for a distinctively new model for carrying out research. One in which distinct disciplines and technologies are unified to reconceptualise approaches to accelerate new discoveries addressing global challenges. Where advances in these new understandings and new technologies are also implemented in active partnership between universities and research institutes with government, the commercial and industrial world but also with not-for-profits and patients and their families.
In 2018, the potential for new powerful tools in biology to not only help answer long-standing questions but also to allow ‘the formulation of questions previously unimagined’ was championed in a special issue of Science. And in 2021 the small but growing genomics field of spatial biology was recognised by the editors of Nature as Method of the Year 2020.
So, what exactly is spatial biology and why is it important? Are there particular challenges to fast-tracking the health and cost-saving benefits of these sorts of potentially revolutionary technologies? And what sorts of funding models might best be suited to harnessing the potentially transformative power of convergence science and technologies, such as spatial biology?