The Hunter is well positioned to tap into the futuristic field of synthetic biology, University of Newcastle Professor Brett Neilan says.
The emerging sector promises to dramatically change the world for the better.
The CSIRO said the technology could provide solutions for "a series of health, industrial and environmental challenges".
"Synthetic biology is like genetic engineering on steroids," Professor Neilan said.
This disruptive technology could lead to a "bioeconomy", capable of providing solutions to many of humanity's needs.
Newcastle could combine its scientific expertise and engineering knowhow to capitalise on the technology.
"Newcastle has a lot of people in the know when it comes to manufacturing in areas like the steel industry," said Professor Neilan, of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology at the University of Newcastle.
The technology has been touted as a way to help rid the world of pollution.
Examples include replacing industrial chemicals with sustainable alternatives and purifying air, water and soil.
The Hunter, for example, could harness the technology to remediate old coal mines and power station ash dams.
Along these lines, University of Newcastle researchers have discovered a bacteria that lives in contaminated soils.
"In that soil, there's bacteria that can degrade the benzene in petrol," Professor Neilan said.
This bacteria is also being developed for use in sunken warships.
"In the south Pacific sea, there's all these warships that have gone down with their payload of diesel," he said.
"Those warships are starting to degrade to a point where the oil is coming out and getting all over the coral reefs. So we want to put this bacteria into the ships to degrade the diesel."
This process could be used to clean land that petrol stations have polluted.
At the moment, Professor Neilan is running a program at the University of Newcastle focused on agriculture.
"Farmers put a lot of phosphate and nitrate on their land [as fertiliser], but it's hard for them to work out whether they have used too much," he said.
The prevailing method is to "put heaps on because it's not that expensive".
"But production of nitrates is really damaging for the environment."
The farmers could save money and help the environment by "only adding the amounts they need".
This program involves a microbial community of bacteria that can detect potassium, phosphate and nitrogen in soil.
"The idea is to link that microbial community with electronic biosensors," Professor Neilan said.
"This is where you really start to push the limits of multidisciplinary science. You've got biologists like myself working with electronic engineers."
If the bacteria senses something in the environment, it will "give off some chemical or stress signal".
Sensors can pick this signal up and it can be sent to farmers as a text or email.
This would mean a more efficient, less polluting system of fertilising land.
Likewise, Macquarie University researchers have considered the possibility of a vineyard containing a grapevine with "an engineered biosensor in its DNA".
"If that plant was getting low on water, it could send electrical pulses to a satellite, alerting the vineyard manager that it was time to turn the sprinklers on."
This would optimise water use and yield.
"The same plant could also potentially monitor air quality. If our hypothetical grape vine was in the NSW Hunter Valley, where vineyards and coal mines share the land, a sentinel plant could alert both vineyard and mine management if pollutants were escaping."
In a paper published in Nature Communications in January, the Macquarie University researchers examined how synthetic biology could shape the future.
"We are also thinking about what will be needed to make sure these technologies are safe for the planet," Professor Isak Pretorius said.
The research considered the legal and regulatory frameworks needed to "safeguard society from what the unintended consequences might be".
Nevertheless, a recent CSIRO survey found Australians were broadly hopeful, excited and curious about "how the emerging field of synthetic biology could address some of the greatest challenges facing our country".
For example, it said synthetic biology could be used to "manage invasive pest species to improve biodiversity and reduce pollution in waterways".
It could be used to prevent mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. This would involve removing or changing genes, so mosquitoes could no longer carry harmful viruses.
Synthetic biology, it said, involves "applying engineering principles to modify and redesign biological systems and living organisms".
This includes "genetic engineering and gene editing".
The results of the survey challenge the common view that the public "generally opposes all genetic modification technologies".
International growth in synthetic biology has been strong. In 2015, the synthetic biology component market (DNA parts) was worth $US5.5 billion. Now it is predicted to be about $US40 billion. In 2008, bio-based chemicals were only 2 per cent of the US$1.2 trillion dollar global chemical market. In 2025, that will rise to 22 per cent "driven by development of synthetic microbial factories".
