Article reprinted from: Zen
Original author: Paul Kohlhaas, founder of BIO Protocol
Compiled by: Zen, PANews
Bitcoin, as the first decentralized digital currency system, enables permissionless value exchange; Ethereum introduced smart contracts that allow anyone to deploy their own programs, enabling permissionless code execution.
Many people invest in cryptocurrencies to maintain their autonomy and prevent the gradual and quiet erosion of their freedoms. A similar movement is forming in the fields of science and medicine, as the freedom for innovation, self-experimentation, and the dissemination of science has been eroded by a broken biomedical research and development system.
The current system is unfavorable for curing diseases
In 2018, Goldman Sachs released a report titled 'The Genomic Revolution,' which questioned whether curing patients is a sustainable business model. Goldman Sachs used Gilead Sciences as an example, which generated 12.5 billion dollars in revenue in 2015 due to its development of an effective hepatitis C treatment, but as more patients were cured, sales significantly declined to 4 billion dollars in subsequent years.
Chronic disease treatments such as pain management with opioids can ensure recurring revenue but often lead patients to rely on drugs rather than addressing the root problem. The addictive nature also leads to widespread drug abuse and dependence. Opioid-related deaths, particularly those caused by prescription opioids, have become a significant public health issue in the United States.
Scientists focus their energy on fundraising instead of scientific research
What would it look like if software developers spent most of their time fundraising instead of writing code?
Most scientific talent is not fully utilized
Due to the lack of a fundamental basis for upgrading science and technology, we cannot achieve solarpunk—a highly harmonious society between humans and nature, filled with sustainability, abundant resources, and innovative ideals.
These dilemmas have led to various resistances and issues in the scientific development process, rather than the 'science fiction' world we aspire to. So
What if we could build a decentralized and self-organizing scientific world? A self-sovereign scientific system driven by open data and liquid markets, with curing diseases as its core goal.
Molecule DAO and BIO Protocol
Molecule is a protocol that brings scientific intellectual property (IP) on-chain; BIO is an engine that provides launch and acceleration for on-chain scientific communities (BioDAOs), consisting of scientists, patients, and investors. BioDAOs focus on a specific scientific field or disease, developing research, drugs, products, and other on-chain intellectual property. For example, VitaDAO has funded multiple projects related to longevity science and research, including the VITA-FAST project developed by Newcastle University's Vikorolchuk lab.
The BIO Protocol team has built the first batch of BioDAOs across multiple scientific fields. According to Dune data, when Paul Kohlhaas spoke last week, the total market value of BioDAOs was less than 100 million dollars, while by November 18, it had exceeded 230 million dollars.
BIO aims to assist scientists, patients, and biotechnology founders in the process of building an on-chain scientific community, including tokenomics design, community building, funding, and liquidity support. BIO token holders can vote to incorporate DAOs into the network, similar to a community-owned accelerator that allows the best teams to stand out and launch their communities on-chain. Currently, upcoming projects on the BIO Launchpad include:
Curetopia: targeting the trillion-dollar rare disease market, its team member Y Combinator alum, Harvard PhD, and rare disease entrepreneur Eric Perlstein pushed a drug to Phase III clinical trials with only 5 million dollars in funding, whereas this typically requires over 100 million dollars.
Long COVID Labs: accelerating cures for over 100 million long COVID patients globally, led by former Stanford neuroscientist Rohan Dixit.
Quantum Biology DAO: building quantum microscopes to observe quantum biological phenomena, led by MIT PhD Clarice D. Aiello, who is also one of the world's leading quantum biology scientists.
To promote the development of this protocol, BIO recently held a Genesis event inviting users to deposit supported DeSci tokens in exchange for BIO tokens. Genesis raised 33 million dollars for the BIO treasury, which has now exceeded 53 million dollars as the price of DeSci tokens has risen. Additionally, BIO has received investment from Binance Labs.
The role of IP-NFT
The BIO Protocol plays a core role in the BioDAO network, with each BioDAO developing drugs and therapies related to specific diseases or treatments, and these research results exist in the form of tokenized scientific intellectual property (IP). Typically, every stage of drug development has historically been kept confidential from the public, but BioDAOs aim to leverage blockchain technology to make the process more open and transparent.
IP-NFT supports this new model, allowing anyone to put intellectual property on-chain, making it programmable, tradable, liquid, and rich in data. Essentially, IP-NFT is a container for intellectual property. Once the IP is fully validated, it can be split into IPT (IP Tokens) and used as governance tokens, enabling individuals to participate as active stakeholders in the scientific process.
For example, Vita-RNA, supported by VitaDAO, focuses on developing novel mRNA gene therapies, led by biotechnology experts Michael Torres and Anthony Schwartz. The Vita-RNA project secured 300,000 dollars in initial funding, but the market capitalization of its VITARNA tokens has already exceeded 27 million dollars. After one of Vita-RNA's main drug candidates showed activity in vitro (in the lab), its price began to rise on Uniswap.
Future outlook of BIO
BIO Protocol is inspired by bio/acc movements that aim to accelerate the development of biology and disrupt many traditional perceptions of healthcare. Biotechnology is a new matrix of life itself. We must fundamentally reshape outdated scientific institutions and processes, accelerate all biology-related research, and build a global, participatory scientific network.