This makes sense: biologics are notoriously tricky to manufacture, and both their safety and efficacy depends not only on the specific protein sequence of the molecule, but on the highly specific culture conditions used to manufacture it.

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One roadblock to synthbio's future is the messed-up patent environment in biotech, where every tiny protein pathway and gene sequence has an owner wanting to get paid.

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But when the virus produces protein, a troublesome mutation results in a change to the amino acid sequence that makes up the protein.

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Both rely on having a protein's amino-acid sequence in the bag, and both have strengths and weaknesses.

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He used up all three years trying to find a genetic sequence that matched the protein--a task that could be done quickly today.

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To the researchers' surprise, when they compared the sequence for their new protein with those already in the public databases, they discovered that it was actually the major vault protein.

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