Centre members are collaborating in three of the announced awards Six new Engineering Biology Mission Hubs and 22 Mission Awards have been announced as part of a £100m UK-wide investment in engineering biology. Funding is provided by the UKRI Technology Missions Fund, with support from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). These recognise the enormous potential engineering biology has to address global challenges and increase resilience by transforming solutions in areas like vaccine, textile and food production. Pivotal roles Researchers from the School of Biological Sciences will lead or be involved in three of the six new hubs. Alongside this success, multidisciplinary members of the Centre for Engineering Biology are involved with 3 of the 22 mission awards. Scalable production of precisely engineered proteins using an expanded genetic code Lead principal investigator: Anthony Green, The University of Manchester Mission area theme: clean growth It is a collaboration between Manchester (Prof. Anthony Green, Dr Sarah Lovelock and Prof. Patrick Cai) and Edinburgh (Dr Amanda Jarvis and Prof Dominic Campopiano in the School of chemistry). A powerful directed-evolution tool for exploitation of chloroplast engineering biology Lead Principal investigator: Saul Purton, University College London Mission area theme: clean growth It is a collaboration between UCL (Saul Purton), Edinburgh (Alistair McCormick in the School of Biological Sciences) and Manchester (Anil Day). Cyanobacteria engineering for restoring environments (CYBER) Lead Principal investigator: Thomas Gorochowski, University of Bristol Mission area theme: environmental solutions It is a collaboration between Bristol, Newcastle and Edinburgh (Diego Oyarzun in the Schools of Biological Sciences and Informatics) The team will be developing the foundational multidisciplinary tools needed to de-risk environmentally focused engineering biology and ultimately support its future deployment into real-world ecosystems. It will be a huge team effort over the next couple years including: Diego Oyarzún, Natalio Krasnogor, University of Bristol, Newcastle University, The University of Edinburgh, Bristol BioDesign Institute, LGC Basecamp Research, Cultivarium, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Bactobio, GitLife Biotech and many more as the project evolves! Learn more at the CYBER website: https://lnkd.in/e-vQNyxF Related Links UKRI Announcement Game-changing gene therapies are focus of £14m research hub Publication date 27 Feb, 2024
