Programming & AI are starting to play big role in biology

Nobel laureate Richard Roberts was in Pune recently. The molecular biologist, who won the Nobel prize in 1993 for physiology or medicine, told us that lack of respect for dogma and a keen sense of questioning everything that people tell, has been the central theme of his career.

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As a researcher at a US institute between 1978 and 1992, Roberts realised that a type of restrictive enzyme they were making was in high demand among scientists. He went to the then director of the institute with an offer to commercialise it. The director turned it down. This led Roberts to take it to a small company. The company, New England Biolabs, where he still works, now is one of the global leaders in the discovery and production of enzymes for molecular biology applications.

For researchers who want to commercialise their product, he has some tips.