Biotech is the New Digital
Image courtesy of Spur Magazine
The following article was originally published in SPUR magazine in my Tomorrow column.
A revolution has been taking place for years, yet the fashion world has been engaging with it superficially and not truly paying attention. “Biotech is the new digital” to quote Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the MIT Media Lab and it has been shattering the boundary between scientific possibility and market reality. Just as businesses across sectors transformed into "digital companies" over the past decades, we're witnessing the proliferation of biotech bio-based companies. What was once confined to specialized pharmaceutical and medical applications developed in labs is now touching every industry, from construction to tech, food to beauty.
Biofabrication and bioprinting are redefining form and function, using cells and engineered microbes to create anything ranging from molecules to organs to textiles, offering unprecedented possibilities including the 2023 development of a synthetic human embryo using stem cells. Regenerative medicine is an expanding field devoted to restoring or substituting injured tissues, nerves and organs, employing stem cells, genetic modification, and engineered biological substances.
In Fashion, brands and media alike have hailed biomaterials as the future. From lab-grown leather to plant-based bioplastics that eliminate environmental waste, biomaterials have offered functional and sustainable solutions. Whilst their use has made inroads with famous endorsements from Stella McCartney with Mylo or Hermes’s MycoWorks, the fashion biomaterials revolution has not reached mainstream adoption. It’s either a PR stunt from big brands, and on the other side of the spectrum, brave pioneering brands and manufacturers are struggling.
This puts fashion to shame when in contrast, biotech is booming in the Beauty industry, giving way to a bevy of new brands delivering consumer demand, market innovation and financial investment at scale. And although the Beauty sector has embedded scientific research and development as a promise to consumers, make no mistake, medical and industrial material innovations have historically revolutionised fashion. Nylon, originally developed for industrial applications, transformed accessories and clothing performance. Velcro, designed for NASA’s mission to the moon, became ubiquitous in fashion. This illustrates how scientific innovations invariably find expression in mainstream fashion.
Several biotech categories are particularly relevant to fashion's future. By failing to invest in them, we are losing market growth and relevance, let alone a deeper purpose for fashion. We are undergoing an industrial revolution and could be building toward a paradigm where clothing and accessories serve health functions and environmental harmony, whilst delivering on style.
If the fashion world were willing to embed itself with the health industry and not treat it as foreign to its ecosystem, a world of opportunity would open with higher budgets, something historically the fashion industry has not been willing to commit to. And with artificial intelligence accelerating innovation in biotech at unprecedented rates, we must stretch our imagination to envision how today's breakthroughs will cascade into tomorrow's realities, potentially reshaping the quality of our lives and wardrobes.
There are three converging and fundamental shifts reshaping biotechnology's future:
First, the combination of computing and biological systems enables unprecedented precision in manipulating organisms. AI decodes genetic data at scales impossible for humans. These advances transform cells into programmable factories, solving once-impossible challenges in textile production and garment functionality while opening new frontiers in health monitoring. MIT’s 2D wearables lab led by Dr. Dmitry Kireev is pioneering in the field of Epidermal Electronics with barely visible flexible stick-on patches made of bioprinted electronic sensors. Meanwhile L’Oreal backed company Debut examines 30,000 genes for skincare benefits. The beauty industry is also birthing a new breed of biotech products called ‘neurocosmetics’ that work through the skin-brain axis to alter our mood and mental state. GlowCytocin is a face cream by Lucas Meyer Cosmetics designed to induce happiness by mimicking the ‘love molecule’ Oxytocin, promising “a youthful and healthy glow” whilst “increasing receptiveness to affective touch and pleasant sensations”.
Second, biotech has emerged as a climate solution. Engineered organisms can capture carbon, produce sustainable fuels, and create eco-friendly materials. Companies are reimagining traditional textile production through biological processes that reduce environmental impact and change how we produce essential materials. In 2024 researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) used modified E. coli bacteria to develop a self-repairing intelligent textile with the ability to self-heal. This could be a game-changer when clothing tears and damage occurs with the potential to drastically reduce textile waste. At Expo 2025 in Osaka, Transeeds Inc. was set to release the Heal Sneaker, “a recovery sneaker” that uses regenerative medicine technology to repair itself as the wearer walks. The material of the sneakers, the company says, “will regenerate like cells, keeping the sneakers as good as new every time you wear them.” Uk company Deinde exemplifies the shift towards resource effectiveness with its novel biotech bioactive Naringenin. It is 15 times more powerful than comparable natural ingredients and uses no pesticides, 99% less land and water to produce.
Third, and this is challenging for a fashion industry that lacks in transparency, but because many biotech applications require constant biofeedback and biometric data collection, the question becomes not whether to engage with biotechnology in fashion, but how to do so responsibly. It’s the usual privacy paradox we face with tech, but this conversation is vital, given the apparent agendas of certain tech companies and billionaires. Vast amounts of collected personal data have already been misused. As biotechnology touches more lives through genetic data and engineered organisms, maintaining societal confidence could become existential and we must consider risks and unintended consequences.
Parting Thoughts
To conclude with some parting thoughts, the fashion industry is incredibly slow to adapt to the innovations taking place. Seemingly more interested in hype and the short term, it’s dangerously falling behind. Ironic, for a fashion world always wanting to be perceived as cutting edge. The biotech revolution is here; we’ve long passed the stage when this was speculative and sci-fi. It’s time for consumers, fashion media, brands and manufacturers alike to shift the meaning of style, fusing creativity with scientific exploration, imaginative aesthetics and wellbeing, in service of the people and planet.
By Geraldine Wharry
