Biotechnology is a notorious minefield for investors. For every successful drug that survives the approval process, dozens more simply flame out. Millions of dollars of capital evaporate every time a clinical trial fails to produce positive results.

Yet a select group of biotech visionaries manage to strike it big -- time and again. They have a knack for spotting biotechnologies that ultimately prove their mettle through the Food and Drug Administration's rigorous process. And few have shown the gift of biotech insights like Randal J. Kirk.

Kirk has built his fortune by focusing on drugs that have blockbuster potential. And he's shown the patience to stick with them -- for years, if needed -- until his vision is realized. The payoff: He netted a $1.2 billion profit in 2007 when Shire (Nasdaq: SHPG) acquired New River Pharmaceuticals for $2.6 billion. New River had developed Vyvanse, a key drug in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Four years later, Kirk struck gold again as Forest Labs (NYSE: FRX) paid him $600 million for his majority stake in Clinical Data, which had developed Viibryd, an anti-depressant drug that hit the market in 2011.

Since then, Kirk has remained off the radar. Sure he's been a major shareholder and director of small biotech firms such as Ziopharm Oncology (Nasdaq: ZIOP), Fibrocell Science (AMEX: FCSC), Oragenics (AMEX: OGEN), Halozyme Therapeutics (Nasdaq: HALO), and Synthetic Biologics (NYSE: SYN). His name routinely pops up on insider buying lists associated with these companies. But his real passion is for a company that's he's been nurturing for half a decade and recently took public in an initial public offering (IPO).

That company, Intrexon (NYSE: XON), has been developing a set of tools that enable scientists to step inside the human gene and alter its basic structure. The company isn't concerned about coming up with a blockbuster drug. It wants to provide the tools for other biotech firms to make major breakthroughs. So what exactly is Intrexon looking to accomplish? The company is in the field of synthetic biology, which alters the core mechanisms of action taking place inside cell walls.