23 hours ago May. 3, 2014 - 8:00 AM PDT

Look inside nearly any medicine cabinet in the U.S. and there will be a few bottles of prescription pills. They might be blue, white, round or square, but their development has followed the same pattern for decades: One of the few gigantic pharmaceutical companies that have come to dominate the industry pours millions, or even billions, of dollars into designing and getting a drug approved. Then the same pill is prescribed to every single person.

Molecular biologist and futurist Andrew Hessel doesnt see that model lasting for much longer. He envisions a world in which every individual receives pharmaceutical drugs perfectly formulated to their genetic and medical needs for a fraction of what treatment would currently cost.

Photo courtesy of Andrew Hessel.

That future is on its way. Companies like Cambrian Genomics are making it possible for anyone to print strands of DNA. Autodesks bio/nano/programmable matter group, where Hessel is a distinguished researcher, is building design software known as Project Cyborg that will allow individuals to make 3D models of living matter.With the price of genetic sequencing dropping every year, he believes it wont be long before anyone who wants to will be able to create with the building blocks that make up life itself. The future of healthbelongs to any startup that wants in on it, instead of just the Genentechs of the world.

By learning to read and better understand the molecular world and self-assembling world, we have the opportunity to create really novel things using the same machinery that creates a plant or a cat, which is kind of fun, Hessel said. The genetic language is like the internet protocol: open, and so its a really fascinating language to learn. You learn one language and you can basically speak all of life, which is really cool. Its my favorite programming language.

What follows is an edited transcription of our conversation.

Signe Brewster:Why do you think individuals should have that kind of power?

Andrew Hessel: Every time I hear of a big challenge for the world, whether its, oh, how do you cure cancer or reduce our dependence on fossil fuels or clean up water or create anything sustainable, for me, its these technologies that are going to apply. If we can democratize their use and keep them open and transparent and make better tools for people to do the work, then were going to change the world in ways that are positive.

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