SynbiTECH 2024: Engineering biology’s promise for the future

In London last week, over 400 attendees and speakers gathered together for the fifth annual SynbiTECH conference in London. The event pitches itself as the UK’s leading forum for people engaged with and interested in engineering biology (synthetic biology) business, investment, policymaking, science and research. Ellen Lambrix, partner in Bristows’ Commercial IP team was in attendance to hear about the latest developments and challenges in the field and to get a glimpse into some of the exciting innovations leading UK based engineering biology companies have in the pipeline.

What is engineering biology?

Broadly speaking synthetic biology (or synbio as it’s often referred to) is a field of science that involves redesigning organisms for useful purposes by engineering them to have new abilities.

In recent years, particularly in the UK, there has been a shift in terminology in the field from “synthetic biology” to “engineering biology” (and in fact there was some debate at SynbiTECH about whether the shift in terminology is helpful or not). As outlined by UKRI: “Synthetic Biology is the design and fabrication of biological components, systems, and materials from biological elements for a useful purpose.” Whereas “Engineering biology is the process of taking those synthetic biology concepts and translating them into solutions to the problems people and the planet face, now and tomorrow.”

For the sake of consistency, in this piece we’ll refer to engineering biology.

Engineering biology is not a new field but recent advances in genomics and machine learning have led to rapid progress over the last decade. These advances, combined with increasing demand across multiple industry sectors to implement sustainable materials and manufacturing solutions, means we seem now to be at a tipping point where engineering biology companies are raising investment, scaling up and commercialising their technology (something acknowledged by the UK government in its 2023 Report by the Council for Science and Technology (CST) entitled “engineering biology: opportunities for the UK economy and national goals”, produced to advise the Prime Minister on how the government can capture economic and societal value from engineering biology).

Potential applications of engineering biology

Engineering biology is emerging as a discipline which has the potential to solve complex problems and tackle global challenges such as climate change and pandemics, transforming multiple industry sectors in the process (including health, transport, farming, food, environment, defence, manufacturing, construction, and energy – as highlighted by the CST to the Prime Minister last year).

In 2020, McKinsey considered around 400 different scientifically feasible use cases of engineering biology that are likely to be commercially viable by 2050 and estimated that they could attribute a combined global economic impact of up to $4 trillion per year over the next ten to twenty years.

In that report, McKinsey identified four key domains for application of engineering biology:

• Human health and performance
• Agriculture, aquaculture, and food
• Consumer products and services; and
• Materials, chemicals, and energy

Last week’s SynbiTECH event included companies representing all four of these areas.

The most advanced development (and the most obvious sector for application) has been in the health sector where there have been significant advances towards personalised medicine in recent years. Engineering biology approaches for human health include cell and gene therapies, RNA vaccines and therapies (including the recent rapidly developed mRNA based vaccines against COVID-19) and gene editing technologies (including CRISPR and other techniques).

The UK has a well-established life science industry and a long history in life sciences innovation and so companies using engineering biology to provide solutions in this space are already able to tap into an established ecosystem (including access to VC investment, existing catapults and scale up infrastructure).

A number of the companies showcasing their technology at SynbiTECH were focussed on applications in the health sector, including:

• LabGenius, a next-generation antibody discovery company which has developed an AI enabled antibody engineering platform.
• NanoSyrinx, which is developing a novel system based around naturally occurring ‘nanosyringes’, which can deliver therapeutic proteins and peptides direct to the interior of cells in a targeted manner.
• Twist Bioscience, which manufactures synthetic DNA for applications including drug discovery and cancer research.

Beyond the health sector however lie many more exciting opportunities for the application of engineering biology. In fact, according to the 2023 CST report, as much as 60 percent of the physical inputs to the global economy could, in principle, be derived from biological systems and living factories (i.e. engineering biology approaches).

Many of the companies which are focussed on the development and commercialisation of non-health engineering biology applications are developing solutions which offer enormous sustainability advantages over current materials and manufacturing methods. As companies across industries increasingly look to more sustainable solutions to enable them to meet ambitious carbon reduction and net zero targets in the coming years and decades, there are compelling reasons for industries to invest in and partner with companies offering engineering biology based solutions.

Some of the non-health applications of engineering biology on show at SynbiTECH included:

• Multus who are developing animal free, food safe alternative growth media for at-scale production of cultivated meat.
• Modern Synthesis who are using microbes to produce alternative materials to replace leather and polyurethane coated textile for the fashion industry.
• Colorfix who are using modified organisms to produce, deposit and fix dyes to fabrics.
• Solena Materials using AI based protein design to develop high performance, non-oil derived biodegradable fibres for apparel and fashion brands.
• Concert Bio using data science and innovative microbial technologies aimed at enhancing plant health and productivity, particularly in soilless farming systems.
• Epoch Biodesign using AI enabled discovery and design of enzyme based bio recycling solutions designed to recycle complex blended plastics into sustainable products.

Speakers from each of these companies (and many more) highlighted the exciting potential for their technologies to address global sustainability challenges. Many of these companies are still at an early stage but a number of them have successfully raised investment and entered into partnerships with industry partners to further develop, scale up and commercialise their technology.

Engineering biology: challenges

Unlike in the health sector, the non-health engineering biology field does not have as established an ecosystem. Speakers discussed some of the issues facing companies operating in this field, particularly access to investment and scale up facilities. The current high costs of R&D and scale up in the field in many cases limits the commercial viability of these technologies, at least initially. Some companies are addressing these issues by focussing on the premium end of the market first. Companies taking this approach include Modern Synthesis who recently partnered with Danish fashion brand Ganni to design a new version of Ganni’s iconic Bou Bag handbag made from bacterial leather. By focussing on the luxury and designer end of the fashion market companies are better able to mitigate initial high production costs (as consumers of luxury brands are generally more willing to tolerate a high price premium on products with smaller production runs). The hope is that in time once companies are able to scale up these novel engineering biology approaches, it will be possible to move into other market segments.

At the conclusion of day 1 of the event, George Freeman MP (MP for Mid Norfolk and previously Minister of State for Science, Technology and Innovation) also discussed the role of the UK government and the potential opportunities for the UK to become a leader in in engineering biology across multiple sectors. As the 2023 CST report acknowledges, setting technical standards creates a common framework for accelerated innovation. Mr Freeman particularly highlighted opportunities for the UK to become a leader in setting international standards for engineering biology and so to foster an attractive and trusted environment for innovation. He also highlighted opportunities for the UK post-Brexit to develop a favourable regulatory environment to encourage engineering biology companies to set up and operate within the UK.

What next?

There has been momentum gathering in the engineering biology field for some time. Commitments by companies and industry to meet sustainability targets in the coming years is generating significant interest in alternative, more sustainable approaches to materials design and manufacturing. The genetic and AI/ML revolution in recent years means that widespread adoption of engineering biology approaches to these complex issues in many cases may now be more of a scale up and commercialisation challenge rather than a scientific challenge.

SynbiTECH 2024 combined an exciting showcase for promising innovation in the filed with discussion about the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. We expect that momentum in this field will continue to grow and anticipate that 2025 will bring more engineering biology companies looking to raise funds and partner with existing industry partners. It will also be interesting to see how the new Government engages with the field and whether the new government takes on any of the recommendations made in the 2023 CST report.

We look forward to following future developments in this exciting sector.