(27bq) Engineered Biological Security Systems: Introducing Biotic Cryptography and Encryption

Given the ever-expanding developments in synthetic biology and related areas, there is a growing need to protect biological assets – e.g., engineered proteins, biosynthesis pathways, and engineered microorganisms. To accomplish the aforesaid, we have developed a platform technology to enable the application of cyber security principles in the context of biological systems. Our biological security technology is composed of two parts - cryptography and encryption. Engineered biological cryptography facilitates the bespoke development of sequential passcodes that are predicated on diverse combinations of chemical input signals. Whereas, biological encryption is defined by the number of possible inputs represented in the extant set of the engineered biological system – represented in this study as a self-contained chassis cell. Increasing the number of input signals dramatically increases the possible states of sequential passcodes, which can serve as the foundation for constructing hierarchical secure biological systems. In addition to cryptography and encryption, we can protect a given biological asset by way of the inclusion of penalties that result in various degrees of sample destruction. Collectively, our platform technology represents a paradigm shift in biological security – redefining how we protect valuable intellectual property and related assets.