The £13.5 million funding is provided by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Technology Missions Fund and delivered by Innovate UK.
The 48 projects cover a wide range of sectors and disciplines and involve private companies, academic institutions and partner bodies. For example, they will be:
- engineering red blood cells to unlock new therapeutic treatments
- developing new bio-based materials to make paints more environmentally friendly
- making a sustainable alternative to palm oil
- engineering animal stem cells to cultivate meat production
- developing advance wound therapy
- advancing industrial biotechnology to develop sustainable packaging
The new projects
UNIVERCell: an engineered red blood cell line to unlock a new, universal therapeutic modality
The UNIVERCell: an engineered red blood cell line to unlock a new, universal therapeutic modality project is led by Scarlet Therapeutics.
It will generate vastly improved methodologies for the production of red blood cells that can be engineered to treat many, currently poorly treated, human diseases.
Based in Bristol, the science underpinning the company has previously been funded by:
- UKRI through the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Innovate UK
- Wellcome Trust
- National Institute for Health and Care Research
- NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT)
P.A.I.N.T.S (Production of Alternative, Innovative and Natural-based Technologies for Styrene)
Another example is led by Crown Paints in partnership with Impact Laboratories and the University of Edinburgh.
The project aims to reduce the carbon footprint of the paints and coatings industry. It focuses on using bio-based styrene material in the production of paints and coatings instead of the petrochemically produced equivalent.
Engineering cyanobacteria into bio-solar cell factories for scalable carbon capture utilisation and storage
Addressing the theme of environmental solutions, Cyanocapture Ltd is collaborating with the McCormick Lab at the University of Edinburgh on this project.
It aims to develop a sustainable and cost-effective solution for carbon capture at the point of emission, enabling mass-scale carbon dioxide (CO2) removal through an engineered cyanobacterium that will take CO2 from flue gas.
It will also explore how it can be engineered as a competent microbial chassis for efficient conversion of CO2 to biomass and value-added chemicals that offer not only long-term carbon sequestration, but also additional economic and societal benefits.
Optimisation of extracellular lipid production and downstream processing for a palm oil alternative
The Optimisation of extracellular lipid production and downstream processing for a palm oil alternative project is led by Sun Bear Biofuture and the Biorenewables Development Centre.
It looks to develop an alternative to palm oil, which is ubiquitous in many products from food to fuel. It aims to reduce its environmental impact due to the loss of forests and habitats for species such as the orangutan and sun bear.
It will optimise a naturally oil-producing yeast strain to produce oil from food waste. The work builds on an earlier Fast Start award from Innovate UK, which allowed the team to prove the expression of key enzymes in their yeast strain for the metabolism of starch.
Continuous Oscillating Baffled Reactor-with-biocatalysts-for Accelerated-reactions (COBRA)
The COBRA project is led by Impact Solutions and the University of Edinburgh.
It will develop a novel lab-scale reactor that is 10-times faster than traditional stirred tank reactors and has created a multi-tier framework of baffles containing small pores to facilitate thorough mixing and mass transfer.
The company wants to achieve ‘greener chemistry’ through its techniques. Heterogeneous biocatalysts are immobilised directly onto the patented baffles it has designed. This negates the chronic environmental hazards associated with metal-catalysts and provides reusability, easy separation and reduced costs of downstream processing.
Supporting some of our brightest minds
Science Minister Andrew Griffith said:
Engineering Biology is overhauling the way we tackle the world’s most complex problems – from recycling, where enzymes can now be used to break down plastic to make industry more sustainable, through to bacteria that capture CO2 emissions.
The £13.5m that we are investing today will support some of our brightest minds to get their ideas out of the lab, and onto the market, delivering benefits across society and the economy.
Pushing boundaries in many fields
Dr Kedar Pandya, UKRI Technology Missions Fund Senior Responsible Owner and Executive Director of Cross-Council Programmes at UKRI’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council said:
Engineering Biology is one of the critical technologies for the UK’s strength and opportunity identified in the Innovation Strategy. These projects, funded through the Technologies Missions Fund, will enable companies to push boundaries in many fields and develop products and services that will improve our way of life and address some of the serious challenges we face as a society.
Addressing societal challenges
Dr Amanda Collis, UKRI Technology Mission Director for Engineering Biology and Interim Deputy Executive Chair of BBSRC said:
UKRI is investing £13.5 million to support collaborative R&D projects to accelerate the development and adoption of engineering biology technologies and techniques to address societal challenges. These projects follow on from the announcement of £100m for Engineering Biology Mission Hubs and Awards, also funded through the UKRI Technology Missions Fund.
Cement global leadership in engineering biology
Gordon Ford, Innovation Lead of Biomedical and Enabling Technologies at Innovate UK said:
The UK Science and Technology Framework identifies Engineering Biology as a critical technology. The UKRI Technology Missions Fund aims to support development of Engineering Biology based solutions to challenges in health, the environment, food systems and clean growth.
Innovate UK’s Engineering Biology Collaborative R&D competitions have driven industry-led research and brings these solutions closer to the market. It is a pleasure to support cutting-edge, exciting research that will cement the UK’s global leadership in Engineering Biology as we look forward to delivering on the UK’s National Vision for Engineering Biology.
All the projects are supporting business led research and development that will:
- lead to new engineering biology products, processes or services
- help to de-risk the adoption of new engineering biology technologies that offer high market potential
The projects align with the government’s national vision for engineering biology and follow on from the announcement of £100 million engineering biology mission hubs and awards, which are also funded through the UKRI Technology Missions Fund.
Further information
Full list of projects
Scalable economic DNA synthesis by oligoseed amplification with novel DNA polymerase enzymes
Project lead: Nunabio Limited
Theme: biomedicine
UNIVERCell: an engineered red blood cell line to unlock a new, universal therapeutic modality
Project lead: Scarlet therapeutics limited
Theme: biomedicine
A heterologous expression toolkit for large-scale production of novel antimicrobials from diverse microbes
Project lead: Bactobio Limited
Theme: crossing cutting tools and services
Engineering a microbial platform for the sustainable production of paclitaxel
Project lead: 17CICADA LTD
Theme: biomedicine
Engineered signal peptides to enhance expression levels in cell and gene therapies
Project lead: Syngensys Limited
Theme: biomedicine
Continuous oscillating baffled reactor-with-biocatalysts-for accelerated-reactions (COBRA)
Project lead: Impact Laboratories Limited
Theme: environmental solutions
The first fully biobased and biodegradable textile coating delivered from scalable engineered bacteria extracts to support affordable sustainable fashion
Project lead: Algreen Limited
Theme: environmental solutions
P.A.I.N.T.S (production of alternative, innovative and natural-based technologies for styrene)
Project lead: Crown Paints Limited
Theme: clean growth
Machine learning accelerated pathway engineering for sustainable palmitic acid biomanufacture
Project lead: Twig Bio Limited
Theme: clean growth
A bioengineered plant cell biomanufacturing platform for the sustainable production of a natural biopesticide
Project lead: Green Bioactives Limited
Theme: environmental solutions
Apoha: cross-cutting technology to support adoption of synthetic biology food systems
Project lead: Apoha Limited
Theme: food systems
Automation and digitalisation technology for evolutionary development of microbial chassis
Project lead: Evolutor Limited
Theme: crossing cutting tools and services
UPEC SimCell as a potential vaccine against UTI
Project lead: Oxford Simcell Limited
Theme: biomedicine
Optimisation of extracellular lipid production and downstream processing for a palm oil alternative
Project lead: Sun Bear Biofuture
Theme: food systems
TUBERGENE: a pipeline to produce gene edited potatoes to enhance consumer satisfaction
Project lead: B-Hive Innovations Limited
Theme: food systems
NJA-1: a novel synthetic enzyme designed to transform polyolefin recycling
Project lead: Epoch Biodesign Limited
Theme: clean growth
Nylon circular: biocatalysts for recycling of post-consumer nylon
Project lead: Evoralis Limited
Theme: clean growth
Engineering cyanobacteria into bio-solar cell factories for scalable carbon capture utilisation and storage
Project lead: Cyanocapture Limited
Theme: environmental solutions
Intracellular bacterial delivery of therapeutic proteins for treatment of cancer
Project lead: Prokarium Limited
Theme: biomedicine
Development of portable digital cloud-connected biosensor for real-time measurement and mapping of environmental contamination of UK rivers
Project lead: Aquaffirm Limited
Theme: environmental solutions
Yield improvement through synthetic biology for a palm oil alternative from fermentation
Project lead: Sun Bear Biofuture Limited
Theme: food systems
Advancing industrial biotechnology: low-cost and performant microbial polyesters for sustainable packaging
Project lead: Shellworks Group Limited
Theme: clean growth
The RNA desktop biofoundry: end to end platform for RNA R&D, process development and manufacturing
Project lead: Biologic Technologies Limited
Theme: biomedicine
A novel high-throughput scale-out fermentation array for isoprene bioprocess development
Project lead: Twig Bio Limited
Theme: clean growth
Chlorella sorokiniana genetic toolkit for sustainable algae oil production
Project lead: Phycobloom Limited
Theme: clean growth
Towards commercial protein production through co-engineering marine microorganisms and feedstocks for precision fermentation
Project lead: Bravelycultured Limited
Theme: food systems
Biomanufacturing downstream process optimisation and scaling with in-silico experimentation
Project lead: New Wave Biotech Limited
Theme: crossing cutting tools and services
Genomic capture to combat the antimicrobial resistance crisis
Project lead: Bactobio Limited
Theme: biomedicine
Manufacturing scale up of Clickmers, a novel class of therapeutic molecules
Project lead: Apis Assay Technologies Limited
Theme: biomedicine
Device for ultrafast, gold standard amplification and detection of nucleic acids using plasmonic thermocycling: accelerating genomics research and democratising gold-standard disease detection
Project lead: Rapidx Bio Limited
Theme: crossing cutting tools and services
Building a VAST platform to rapidly engineer novel synthetic gene delivery vectors
Project lead: Deliver Biosciences Limited
Theme: biomedicine
Accelerated, multi-parameter enzyme optimisation for the process scale-up of a novel pharmaceutical biocatalyst
Project lead: Imperagen Limited
Theme: clean growth
TRACE (tracking and recording accurate cellular engineering): ensuring provenance in machine learning-driven yeast optimisation
Project lead: Gitlife Biotech Limited
Theme: crossing cutting tools and services
Harnessing the power of engineering biology to develop and translate novel live biotherapeutics
Project lead: NCIMB Limited
Theme: crossing cutting tools and services
Guided Biotics® for control of clostridium perfringens in food production
Project lead: Folium Food Science Limited
Theme: food systems
PRIME: protein recombination improvement through multidisciplinary engineering
Project lead: Multus Biotechnology Limited
Theme: food systems
Optimisation of CAS-based rapid microbial biosensor
Project lead: CEXAL Limited
Theme: environmental solutions
Microbial-derived solutions for enhanced crop protection through synthetic microbial communities
Project lead: Bugbiome Limited
Theme: environmental solutions
Engineering synthetic polymer hydrogels for controlled delivery of extracellular vesicles as an advanced wound care therapy
Project lead: Evolution Therapeutics Limited
Theme: biomedicine
Non-conventional yeast strain optimisation for industrial protein production using deep learning
Project lead: HERlab Limited
Theme: crossing cutting tools and services
The manufacturing of de novo designed protein fibres
Project lead: Solena Materials Limited
Theme: clean growth
A rapid prototyping device for expression of membrane proteins
Project lead: Nuclera Limited
Theme: crossing cutting tools and services
Development of a Yersinia SimCell vaccine against plague
Project lead: Oxford Simcell Limited
Theme: biomedicine
Development of edible hollow fibre bioreactor for cultivated meat production
Project lead: Kalvotech Limited
Theme: food systems
Engineering of safe and efficient animal stem cell lines for cultivated meat production
Project lead: Quest Meat Limited
Theme: food systems
A new, novel bioreactor to power engineering biology
Project lead: Sterling Bio Machines Limited
Theme: crossing cutting tools and services
Engineering of nature-mimetic sub-micron crystalline protein depots to incorporate high cargo densities
Project lead: Cell Guidance Systems Limited
Theme: biomedicine
Process development and cost-effective manufacture of recombinant hormone for livestock reproduction
Project lead: Biodivide Limited
Theme: food systems
About UKRI Technology Missions Fund
The UKRI Technology Missions Fund is designed to exploit the UK’s global leadership in transformative technologies to help solve specific problems, while also helping cement that leading position.
Overall, UKRI is investing £250 million in Technology Missions to enable new and existing capabilities and capacity in artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and engineering biology in the years 2023 to 2025 and beyond. With a further £70 million announced to support future telecommunications.
About the national vision for engineering biology
The national vision for engineering biology published in December 2023 defines the UK government’s collective ambition for engineering biology and sets the direction in which government investment, policy and regulatory reform will deliver through the strands of the Science and Technology Framework.
Top image: Credit: Violka08, iStock, Getty Images Plus via Getty Images