Join members from the team leading the Microbial Food Hub as they provide an overview of their expansive engineering biology programme.
You can expect to learn more about:
- the aims and objectives of this Engineering Biology Mission Hub
- research and innovation activities taking place across the consortium
- opportunities to engage with the programme
There will be an opportunity within the webinar for attendees to pose questions to the Mission Hub team.
This webinar is part of a series taking place over 2025.
Each webinar will feature members from one of the six UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Engineering Biology Mission Hub teams.
About the Microbial Food Hub
The Microbial Food Hub mission is to harness the joint potentials of engineering biology and the microbial food revolution to transform the food system.
Current food systems are unsustainable. Urgent solutions are required to deliver a food system which is more sustainable, productive, resilient, and healthy.
Microbial foods may offer one such solution.
Microbial foods are produced using the fermentation capabilities of microorganisms. They include many of the food products we enjoy on a regular basis, such as cheese, bread, and soy sauce.
Microbial foods provide a potentially healthier and more sustainable alternative to food produced through more traditional approaches.
Engineering biology affords exciting new opportunities to optimise microbial food production.
For example, it can be used to manipulate the food-producing microbes, so they are more productive or impart novel flavours or textures to the final product.
This Mission Hub aims to take advantage of recent advances in engineering biology and food sciences to expand and enhance the repertoire of microbial food products available to consumers.
The team will employ cutting-edge engineering biology approaches to produce microbial foods which are healthier, tastier and more nutritious than current products.
They will also spearhead new capabilities in several underpinning technologies such as artificial intelligence, scale-up, and food technology and nutrition.
These advances promise to make the production of new microbial foods easier in the future.
Ultimately, the innovations delivered by the Microbial Food Hub could contribute to efforts to realise a more sustainable, productive, resilient and healthy food system.
The Microbial Food Hub is led by Dr Rodrigo Ledesma Amaro at Imperial College London, in collaboration with partners at:
- Aberystwyth University
- Imperial College London
- Rothamsted Research
- University of Cambridge
- University of Kent
- University of Reading
Target audience
This webinar is targeted primarily at communities within the engineering biology and biotechnology research and innovation ecosystem, for example:
- researchers
- innovators
- businesses
- investors
- policymakers
This webinar will also appeal to those working within the food sector.
However, we encourage anyone with an interest in how UK researchers and innovators are using engineering biology to address real-world challenges to attend.
UKRI Engineering Biology Mission Hubs
In 2024, UKRI invested over £70 million in six Engineering Biology Mission Hubs.
Engineering Biology Mission Hubs are significant, long-term investments that promise to unlock the potential of engineering biology across a broad range of applications in the areas of:
- biomedicine
- clean growth
- environmental solutions
- food systems
Each of the six Mission Hubs aim to drive engineering biology towards tangible, mission-orientated impacts including economic and societal.
They will do this through a variety of activities, such as:
- research and innovation
- translation and commercialisation
- training
- cross-sector engagement
The Mission Hubs are supported through the Technology Missions Fund (TMF) programme, a joint initiative between UKRI and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
The aim of the TMF programme is to accelerate technology development, adoption, and diffusion, while cementing the UK’s global leadership in critical technologies.
This programme builds on over £800 million of UKRI investment in engineering biology since 2007.
You can find out more about our long-term support for this area through our recent showcase.