Engineering biology projects are getting more support to drive them from concept through to commercialisation with a £5.8 million boost from the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Technology Missions Fund.
The funds will be allocated to seed corn and proof-of-concept initiatives. A £3 million proof-of-concept programme aims to create new collaborations between academics and industry working in engineering biology. This programme will be delivered through the SynbiCITE Innovation and Knowledge Centre, the UK’s national synthetic biology industry and engineering biology industrial accelerator, based at Imperial College London’s White City Deep Tech Campus.
A separate £2.8 million seed corn fund will support the development and growth of commercial opportunities from the previously-funded Engineering Biology Mission Hubs and Mission Awards research programmes.
This aims to drive the commercialisation of engineering biology discoveries by supporting the scaling of technologies with commercial potential and developing business models.
Engineering biology is a developing inter-disciplinary field, bringing together biology, concepts from engineering and advanced computational skills to build biological systems which could help to resolve many of the world’s most pressing health, environmental and economic problems. Products created through engineering biology can range from sustainable fuels to new materials and medicines or disease-resistant crops, and the sector is predicted to add billions of dollars to the global economy over the next decade.
The UK government has focused on engineering biology as a sector it wants to encourage to grow in the UK and in December 2023 published its National Vision for Engineering Biology, with ambitions for the UK to build a “broad, rich engineering biology ecosystem” that can safely develop and commercialise the opportunities to come from the technology and the underlying science.
Science Minister Lord Vallance said this funding is part of how the national vision will be delivered and said engineering biology is a technology with transformative potential for health, the economy and national resilience. “From the development of new medicines to creating sustainable fuels, it could significantly help us in our missions to improve healthcare, grow our economy and become a green energy superpower,” he said. “To seize these opportunities, the government must work closely with our researchers, academics and businesses.”
Amanda Collis, UKRI Technology Mission Director for Engineering Biology said the investment will drive the translation of engineering biology from concept through to commercialisation. “Engineering biology has a huge range of real-world applications, from producing new medicines to developing disease-resistant crops, and on through to environmental remediation and enabling more sustainable manufacturing processes,” she said.
Richard Kitney, chair of BioMedical Systems Engineering at Imperial College London described engineering biology is the “new frontier” in manufacturing, job creation and solving global challenges in health and the environment and said the UK has already had success in incubating synthetic biology startups including Multus Media, Colorifix and LabGenius.
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