Opportunity space: Bioenergetic Engineering

Document type: Opportunity space

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Author: Nathan Wolfe

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Date published: 24 July 2025

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Version: 1

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.67475/be0gxa-9v33

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Abstract

In his seminal 1944 work What is Life? Schrödinger proposed that fundamentally, life accumulates order by harvesting energy, and preserves its capacity to do this via information (i.e. genetics). Genetic engineering now lets us control life’s information, yet the engineering of life’s energy remains underdeveloped. A powerful set of new tools could bridge the gap, enabling breakthroughs ranging from treatments for neurodegenerative disease to biohybrid solutions for environmental remediation and resilience.