SynBio Topic Modelling

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 total based on publication counts during 2004 - 2023. The top ranked clusters (1-20) are shown in figure .1.

SynBio clusters - ranks 1-20

The peak in divisional activity identified earlier in this report is present in some key topic trends with a surge in filings during 2011. However, focusing on the publication period 2014-23 there exists numerous increasing trendlines, with topics such as Antibodies, genetically modified microorganisms, engineered cells, vaccines and immunotherapy amongst others experiencing rapid growth. Topics such as Biofuels appear to be mature topic areas which have peaked.

SynBio clusters - ranks 21-40

The publication year trends of SynBio clusters ranked 21-40 are shown in figure .2.

There are a number of topics which are exhibiting rapid growth including CRISPR for genome editing, chimeric antigen receptor based therapeutics and antibody-drug conjugates and alternative proteins used for food, etc. Unsurprisingly the coronavirus vaccines and antibodies topic has experienced a very rapid increase in growth in recent years.

Fast growing SynBio topics

The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) was identified for the fastest growing topics during 2014-23, visualised in figure .3 to investigate the fastest growing fields, based on the publication period 2014-23.

The rapid compound annual growth rates during 2014-2023 for innovative technologies such as CRISPR (68.3%), chimeric antigen receptors (49.5%) and immunotherapy (27.4%) amongst others, highlights the growing influence of the SynBio field. Fields such as CRISPR had relatively low publication figures in 2014 which can influence the calculation. However, even established fields such as genetically modified microorganisms are experiencing solid growth (14.0%). The stats suggest there are diverse areas of flourishing innovation within SynBio technology areas at the European Patent Office. Collaboration between universities, public sector, non-profit organisations and companies working across multiple SynBio areas could also support multi-disciplinary growth.

The average number of publications during 2014-2018 & 2019-2023 are compared in figure .4 for each SynBio technology cluster. The vast majority of clusters have increasing trends when contrasting 2019-2023 with the prior 5 years. The notable exception is biomass conversion and processing which has decreased from 356 to 306 publications on average per year in 2019-2023. A large number of therapeutic fields exhibit fast growth during 2019-23 compared with 2014-18, there are also noticeable increasing trends for nanoparticles, CRISPR, CAR-T and engineered cells at the European Patent Office.