One decade of Deeptechs.. ready for convergence

We have introduced the acronym B.E.N.C.H. for the deeptech

- Biotechnologies

- Electronics

- Nanotechnologies

- Computation

- Humanities

Looking at 10 years of technologies from MIT and the World Economic Forum.

The next decade 2020-2030 will see the convergence of technologies and an acceleration of deeptech innovation. To understand the coming technologies shift we can look at one decade of enabling technologies.

---

Biotechnologies

Life science

• Microneedles for Painless Injections and Tests

• Whole-Genome Synthesis

• Disordered Proteins as Drug Targets

• Plasmonic materials

• Electroceuticals

• The Human Cell Atlas

• DNA App Store

• Organs-on-chips

• Optogenetics

• Systems Metabolic Engineering

• Immune Engineering

• Separating Chromosomes

• Synthetic Cells

• Synthetic biology and metabolic engineering

• Egg Stem Cells

• Nanopore Sequencing

• Cancer Genomics

Healthcare

• Messenger RNA vaccines

• Virtual Patients

• Digital Medicine

• Hyper-personalized medicine

• Anti-aging drugs

• Predicting preemies

• Gut probe in a pill

• Custom cancer vaccines

• An ECG on your wrist

• Personalised medicine

• Implantable drug-making cells

• Gene drive

• Artificial Embryos

• Genetic Fortune-Telling

• Liquid biopsies

• Genomic vaccines

• Reversing Paralysis

• Gene Therapy 2.0

• Precise genetic engineering techniques

• Brain Organoids

• Brain Mapping

• Human Microbiome Therapeutics

• RNA-based Therapeutics

• Precise drug delivery through nanoscale engineering

• Prenatal DNA Sequencing

• Personalized medicine, nutrition and disease prevention

Food and Agriculture

• Advanced Food Tracking and Packaging

• The cow-free burger

• Lab-grown meat

• Precision farming

• Precise Gene Editing in Plants

• Agricultural Drones

• Enhanced nutrition to drive health at the molecular level

• Green Revolution 2.0 – technologies for increased food and biomass

Electronics & Nanotechnologies

City, Transportation & Space

• Hyper-accurate positioning

• Electric Aviation

• Satellite mega-constellations

• Sensing City

• Sustainable design of communities

• Self-Driving Trucks

• Autonomous Vehicles

• Reusable Rockets

• ‘Sense and avoid’ drones

• Car-to-Car Communication

• OnLine Electric Vehicles (OLEV)

Robotics and Materials

• Quantum Sensing

• Tiny Lenses for Miniature Devices

• Social Robots

• Robot dexterity

• 3-D Metal Printing

• Babel-Fish Earbuds

• Materials’ Quantum Leap

• Practical Quantum Computers

• Nanosensors and the Internet of Nanothings

• 2D Materials

• Robots That Teach Each Other

• Next-generation robotics

• Additive manufacturing

• Distributed manufacturing

• Neuromorphic chips technology

• Nano-Architecture

• Agile Robots

• Microscale 3-D Printing

• Nanostructured Carbon Composites

• Mining Metals from Desalination Brine

• Ultraprivate Smartphones

• Nanowire Lithium-ion Batteries

• Screenless Display

• 3-D printing and remote manufacturing

• Self-healing materials

• Smart Watches

• Nanoscale design of materials

• Wireless power

• Light-Field Photography

• 3-D Transistors

• High-Speed Materials Discovery

• Solid-State Batteries

Computing

Digital and Computing

• Data trusts

• Digital contact tracing

• Remote everything

• Multi-skilled AI

• GPT-3

• TikTok recommendation algorithms

• Spatial Computing

• Unhackable internet

• Digital money

• Quantum supremacy

• Tiny AI

• Differential privacy

• Collaborative Telepresence

• Smooth-talking AI assistants

• Augmented reality

• More capable digital helpers

• Algorithms for quantum computers

• AI for Everybody

• Dueling Neural Networks

• Perfect Online Privacy

• Deep learning for visual tasks

• Quantum computing

• Paying with Your Face

• The 360-Degree Selfie

• Botnets of Things

• Reinforcement Learning

• The Blockchain

• Open AI Ecosystem

• Conversational Interfaces

• Emergent artificial intelligence

• Internet baloon

• Virtual reality

• Mobile Collaboration

• Brain-computer Interfaces

• Remote sensing

• Big Data from Cheap Phones

• Temporary Social Media

• Deep Learning

• Informatics for adding value to information

• Enhanced education technology

• A Faster Fourier Transform

• Social Indexing

• Gestural Interfaces

• Homomorphic Encryption

• Cloud Streaming

• Crash-Proof Code

Humanities and others

Environment & Energy

• Green hydrogen

• Lithium-metal batteries

• Green Hydrogen

• Sun-Powered Chemistry

• Lower-Carbon Cement

• Utility-Scale Storage of Renewable Energy

• Climate change attribution

• Bioplastics for a Circular Economy

• Smarter Fertilizers Can Reduce Environmental Contamination

• Safer Nuclear Reactors

• New-wave nuclear power

• Carbon dioxide catcher

• Sanitation without sewers

• Zero-Carbon Natural Gas

• Harvesting clean water from air

• Liquid fuels from sunshine

• Affordable catalysts for green vehicles

• Hot Solar Cells

• Next Generation Batteries

• Power from the Air

• Perovskite Solar Cells

• Fuel cell vehicles

• Recyclable thermoset plastics

• Megascale Desalination

• Supercharged Photosynthesis

• Smart Wind and Solar Power

• Grid-scale Electricity Storage

• Energy-efficient water purification

• Carbon dioxide (CO2) conversion and use

• Organic electronics and photovoltaics

• Fourth-generation reactors and nuclear-waste recycling

• Ultra-Efficient Solar Power

• Supergrids

• Utilization of carbon dioxide as a resource

• High energy density power systems

• Solar Microgrids

• Smart Transformers

---

Example of technologies convergence

Biotechnology and Computing

• AI-discovered molecules

• DNA Data Storage

• AI-led molecular design

• Internet of DNA

• Digital genome

• Systems biology and computational modelling/simulation of chemical and biological systems

Health and Electronics

• Body-adapted Wearable Electronics

• Quantified Self (Predictive Analytics)

• Memory Implants

---

Technology Decade Long List

MIT 2021

1. Messenger RNA vaccines

2. GPT-3

3. TikTok recommendation algorithms

4. Lithium-metal batteries

5. Data trusts

6. Green hydrogen

7. Digital contact tracing

8. Hyper-accurate positioning

9. Remote everything

10. Multi-skilled AI

WEF 2020

1. Microneedles for Painless Injections and Tests

2. Sun-Powered Chemistry

3. Virtual Patients

4. Spatial Computing

5. Digital Medicine

6. Electric Aviation

7. Lower-Carbon Cement

8. Quantum Sensing

9. Green Hydrogen

10. Whole-Genome Synthesis

MIT 2020

1. Unhackable internet

2. Hyper-personalized medicine

3. Digital money

4. Anti-aging drugs

5. AI-discovered molecules

6. Satellite mega-constellations

7. Quantum supremacy

8. Tiny AI

9. Differential privacy

10. Climate change attribution

WEF 2019

1. Bioplastics for a Circular Economy

2. Social Robots

3. Tiny Lenses for Miniature Devices

4. Disordered Proteins as Drug Targets

5. Smarter Fertilizers Can Reduce Environmental Contamination

6. Collaborative Telepresence

7. Advanced Food Tracking and Packaging

8. Safer Nuclear Reactors

9. DNA Data Storage

10. Utility-Scale Storage of Renewable Energy

MIT 2019

1. Robot dexterity

2. New-wave nuclear power

3. Predicting preemies

4. Gut probe in a pill

5. Custom cancer vaccines

6. The cow-free burger

7. Carbon dioxide catcher

8. An ECG on your wrist

9. Sanitation without sewers

10. Smooth-talking AI assistants

WEF 2018

1. Augmented reality

2. Personalised medicine

3. AI-led molecular design

4. More capable digital helpers

5. Implantable drug-making cells

6. Gene drive

7. Algorithms for quantum computers

8. Plasmonic materials

9. Lab-grown meat

10. Electroceuticals

MIT 2018

1. 3-D Metal Printing

2. Artificial Embryos

3. Sensing City

4. AI for Everybody

5. Dueling Neural Networks

6. Babel-Fish Earbuds

7. Zero-Carbon Natural Gas

8. Perfect Online Privacy

9. Genetic Fortune-Telling

10. Materials’ Quantum Leap

WEF 2017

1. Liquid biopsies

2. Harvesting clean water from air

3. Deep learning for visual tasks

4. Liquid fuels from sunshine

5. The Human Cell Atlas

6. Precision farming

7. Affordable catalysts for green vehicles

8. Genomic vaccines

9. Sustainable design of communities

10. Quantum computing

MIT 2017

1. Reversing Paralysis

2. Self-Driving Trucks

3. Paying with Your Face

4. Practical Quantum Computers

5. The 360-Degree Selfie

6. Hot Solar Cells

7. Gene Therapy 2.0

8. The Cell Atlas

9. Botnets of Things

10. Reinforcement Learning

WEF 2016

1. Nanosensors and the Internet of Nanothings

2. Next Generation Batteries

3. The Blockchain

4. 2D Materials

5. Autonomous Vehicles

6. Organs-on-chips

7. Perovskite Solar Cells

8. Open AI Ecosystem

9. Optogenetics

10. Systems Metabolic Engineering

MIT 2016

1. Immune Engineering

2. Precise Gene Editing in Plants

3. Conversational Interfaces

4. Reusable Rockets

5. Robots That Teach Each Other

6. DNA App Store

7. SolarCity’s Gigafactory

8. Slack

9. Tesla Autopilot

10. Power from the Air

WEF 2015

1. Fuel cell vehicles

2. Next-generation robotics

3. Recyclable thermoset plastics

4. Precise genetic engineering techniques

5. Additive manufacturing

6. Emergent artificial intelligence

7. Distributed manufacturing

8. ‘Sense and avoid’ drones

9. Neuromorphic technology

10. Digital genome

MIT 2015

1. Magic Leap

2. Nano-Architecture

3. Car-to-Car Communication

4. Project Loon

5. Liquid Biopsy

6. Megascale Desalination

7. Apple Pay

8. Brain Organoids

9. Supercharged Photosynthesis

10. Internet of DNA

WEF 2014

1. Body-adapted Wearable Electronics

2. Nanostructured Carbon Composites

3. Mining Metals from Desalination Brine

4. Grid-scale Electricity Storage

5. Nanowire Lithium-ion Batteries

6. Screenless Display

7. Human Microbiome Therapeutics

8. RNA-based Therapeutics

9. Quantified Self (Predictive Analytics)

10. Brain-computer Interfaces

MIT 2014

1. Agricultural Drones

2. Ultraprivate Smartphones

3. Brain Mapping

4. Neuromorphic Chips

5. Genome Editing

6. Microscale 3-D Printing

7. Mobile Collaboration

8. Oculus Rift

9. Agile Robots

10. Smart Wind and Solar Power

WEF 2013

1. OnLine Electric Vehicles (OLEV)

2. 3-D printing and remote manufacturing

3. Self-healing materials

4. Energy-efficient water purification

5. Carbon dioxide (CO2) conversion and use

6. Enhanced nutrition to drive health at the molecular level

7. Remote sensing

8. Precise drug delivery through nanoscale engineering

9. Organic electronics and photovoltaics

10. Fourth-generation reactors and nuclear-waste recycling

MIT 2013

1. Smart Watches

2. Ultra-Efficient Solar Power

3. Memory Implants

4. Prenatal DNA Sequencing

5. Deep Learning

6. Additive Manufacturing

7. Big Data from Cheap Phones

8. Temporary Social Media

9. Supergrids

10. Baxter: The Blue-Collar Robot

WEF 2012

1. Informatics for adding value to information

2. Synthetic biology and metabolic engineering

3. Green Revolution 2.0 – technologies for increased food and biomass

4. Nanoscale design of materials

5. Systems biology and computational modelling/simulation of chemical and biological systems

6. Utilization of carbon dioxide as a resource

7. Wireless power

8. High energy density power systems

9. Personalized medicine, nutrition and disease prevention

10. Enhanced education technology

MIT 2012

1. Egg Stem Cells

2. Ultra-Efficient Solar

3. Light-Field Photography

4. Solar Microgrids

5. 3-D Transistors

6. A Faster Fourier Transform

7. Nanopore Sequencing

8. Crowdfunding

9. High-Speed Materials Discovery

10. Facebook's Timeline

MIT 2011

1. Social Indexing

2. Smart Transformers

3. Gestural Interfaces

4. Cancer Genomics

5. Solid-State Batteries

6. Homomorphic Encryption

7. Cloud Streaming

8. Crash-Proof Code

9. Separating Chromosomes

10. Synthetic Cells