SynBio Topic Model trends

A synthetic biology perspective

The individual publications identified within the SynBio related EPO patent dataset are mapped to at least one topic during the topic modelling stage. This enables accurate publication year trends to be identified for each topic cluster, investigating SynBio innovation with enhanced data granularity. For ease of review the categories have been ranked according to their overall totals based on publication counts since 2015. The top ranked clusters (1-20) are shown in figure 1, ranks 21-40 are shown in figure 2 and ranks 41-60 are shown in figure 3.

In figure 1, there are multiple topics which exhibit fast growth and have either levelled off in 2024 or are slightly declining. This is unsurprising given some topics such as antibodies and gene editing are above the 3000 publications per year threshold. Topics such as drug delivery, antisense and nucleotide therapies and gene therapy have peaked in 2024. Genetically modified microorganisms have been consistent for the last three years during 2022-2024, an important SynBio area.

In the subset of topics ranked 21-40 in figure 2, there is a larger proportion of topics peaking in 2024. The non-therapeutic topics such as packaging, films & bioplastics, biofuel related, biodegradable materials, polyesters and waste conversion and processing are all either exhibiting growth or there is a slight levelling off by 2024. SynBio is having a great impact in these non-therapeutic areas, delivering modern alternatives and sustainable materials, etc. The AI & machine learning topic appears to be growing rapidly in 2024.

In the subset of topics ranked 41-60 in figure 3, the antibody drug conjugates and bioremediation and gaseous capture topics are growing rapidly in 2024. The molecular design and biostatistics e.g. drug discovery topic has shown consistent growth peaking in 2024. Alternative proteins appear to be accelerating. The growth of the overall biofuel topic appears to be related to the hydrogen, syngas and biogas topic which has also peaked in 2024.