Meet the R&D Creators
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In Phase One, we’re funding nine teams across two Technical Areas. Teams in TA1 will develop synthetic genetic units that can give plants beneficial traits and characteristics, which current methods make difficult, costly, and time-consuming to achieve. Alongside this technical work, TA2 teams will lead public engagement on the social and ethical considerations around new and advanced technologies.
Our teams span a wide range of disciplines, from computational biology and DNA assembly to sociology and ethics, and represent a strong institutional mix across startups, university labs, and public research institutions. Together, they’ll aim to make essential crops more resilient to environmental challenges, support more productive and sustainable farming, and ensure that diverse public perspectives help shape the future of these technologies.
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TA1 | Design, Build, Deliver
\nWe’re funding seven teams to develop ways to build and introduce genetic instructions into chloroplasts and chromosomes, enabling us to equip crop plants with beneficial abilities and characteristics such as higher yield, improved photosynthesis, and better tolerance to stressors. This work will initially focus on Solanum tuberosum (the potato).
","tabId":"","modules":[{"type":"spacer-comp","data":{"type":"spacer-comp","cssSizeClass":"medium","height":0}},{"type":"creator-cards","data":{"type":"creator-cards","items":[{"title":"Creating a programmable, synthetic plastid genome: Synplastome 2.0","description":"","teamLead":"Saul Purton, University College London","team":"","text":"Award: c. £8.9m
Team: Scott Lenaghan, C. Neal Stewart, Jr + Alexander Pfotenhauer, University of Tennessee | Alison Smith, Paweł Mordaka + Vicki Marshall, University of Cambridge | Wes Robertson, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology | Martin Warren, Sree Javvadi + Mike Paxhia, Quadram Institute | Anil Day + Negar Farrokhzad, Bright Biotech Ltd | Chris Voigt, Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Andre Holzer, Holzer Scientific Consulting GmbH
Saul + team’s vision is to harness the power of organisms that capture energy from sunlight – both land plants and algae – for the sustainable, affordable, and accessible production of valuable compounds for healthcare and manufacturing. They’ll do this in three parts: first, by developing a new method for introducing a set of synthetic genetic instructions that can add beneficial traits into major crop plants, starting with the potato. Second, they’ll advance our ability to engineer chloroplasts – which capture sunlight for energy production – by developing methods that allow the delivery and proper functioning of complex traits. Third, they’ll build new tools that can work in multiple types of plants, allowing this approach to be applied to a range of societally important crops. Ultimately, their vision is to use a wide range of photosynthetic organisms to make biopharmaceuticals, biopolymers and other bio-products.
","label":"","cardId":"","mediaType":null,"modules":[]},{"title":"From Prototype to Production: Implementing synthetic chromosome technology in crops","description":"","teamLead":"Jake Harris, University of Cambridge","team":"","text":"Award: c. £6.6m
Team: Briardo Llorente + Ian Paulsen, Macquarie University | Ryan Lister + James Lloyd, University of Western Australia | Nicolas Kral, Phytoform Labs
Growth patterns, stress tolerance, and soil nutrient uptake are plant traits that are critical for improving food security and climate resilience. These traits are determined by plant chromosomes, structures that contain genetic ‘instructions’. Historically, our ability to influence these chromosomes has been limited. Jake + team seek to tackle this challenge by laying the foundations for delivering large and complex sets of chromosomes into crop plants. Their goal is to build and deliver a large piece of DNA, approximately the size of a million genetic ‘letters’, into the potato, as a synthetic plant chromosome. Jake + team believe that creating these chromosomes and delivering them into plants will unlock the ability to access and improve virtually any plant characteristic, which could have transformative benefits for the global food system and beyond.
","label":"","cardId":"","mediaType":null,"modules":[]},{"title":"SyncSol: A Streamlined Platform for Synthetic Chloroplast Genome Assembly in Solanaceous Crops","description":"","teamLead":"Daniel Dunkelmann, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology","team":"","text":"Award: c. £9.1m
Team: Ralph Bock, Stephanie Ruf, Qiuci Luo, Mac Flanagan, Yuhan Liu, Anne Schadach, Claudia Voigt, Charleen Kuckel + Noah Oppermann, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology | Daniel de la Torre, Gabrielle Guesdon + Dionysis Grigoriadis, Constructive Bio | Pallavi Singh, University of Essex | Patrick Shih + Lauren Owens, University of California, Berkeley | Derek Stemple, James Richardson, Ellecia Starr, Corinne Arnold, Simon Tooke, Marcella Ferrera + James Allen, Camena Bioscience
Daniel + team’s goal is to streamline genetic engineering in plants, and the speed at which new traits can be tested. To achieve this, they’ll create a system to efficiently design, build, deliver, and assemble a universal chloroplast genome – the genetic ‘instructions’ in the parts of plant cells that capture sunlight for energy production – in a host plant. This system will be accompanied by methods for the genome to be introduced into a variety of major crop plants, starting with the potato. Underpinning this work is the team’s desire to develop solutions for the global food system by transforming the speed and scale of plant genomic engineering, and ultimately using plants as a sustainable way to make useful products.
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","author":"Daniel Dunkelmann","role":"Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology","image":{"src":"/media/ofgbopo5/synthetic-plants-daniel-dunkelmann-new.jpg?width=600&height=750&format=webp&v=1dbce8eeebaf7b0","alt":"Synthetic Plants | Daniel Dunkelmann New"}}},{"type":"creator-cards","data":{"type":"creator-cards","items":[{"title":"OPTIMiSE: Oxford Plastid Transformation for an Improved Sustainable Economy","description":"","teamLead":"Steven Kelly, University of Oxford","team":"","text":"Award: c. £6.7m
Team: Francesco Licausi, C. Nathali Flores Fernandez, Chris O’ Callaghan + Ximena Chirinos Herrera, University of Oxford | Sam Gattis, Wild Bioscience Ltd
Steven + team aim to use natural variation within plant chloroplast genomes – genetic ‘instructions’ within the structures that conduct photosynthesis – to improve productivity in crop plants. By combining advances in evolutionary biology with cutting-edge DNA assembly technology, the team will pioneer a new way of speeding up the process of plant breeding. This novel technology is designed to enable faster development of improved crop plants by combining beneficial natural variation that is already present in the chloroplast genomes of different varieties. By applying this new approach first to the potato, then to wheat, this team aims to improve photosynthesis, yield, and stress resilience, allowing farmers to grow more food with fewer resources, even under difficult conditions.
","label":"","cardId":"","mediaType":null,"modules":[]},{"title":"Reducing Costs and Iteration Times on our Way Towards Synthetic Plants","description":"","teamLead":"Karen Sarkisyan, Syntato","team":"","text":"Award: c. £4.9m
Team: Léa Meneu, Syntato | Diego Orzaez, Marta Vazquez-Vilar + Andrea Martín Merchán, MadeInPlant | Marko Storch, London Biofoundry
Karen + team will explore approaches to make chromosome engineering in plants more affordable, precise, and sustainable, guided by the belief that engineering chromosomes – the structures that carry sets of genetic ‘instructions’ in all plant cells – is a necessary step towards creating plants that can be equipped with complex, adaptive traits. They’ll identify ways to design chromosomes that can be used across multiple crops, and to create them in an affordable way. Ultimately, Karen’s team aims to build a synthetic chromosome and use it to create a new variety of potato, whilst laying the foundation for a more cost-effective and efficient engineering of plant genomes.
","label":"","cardId":"","mediaType":null,"modules":[]},{"title":"A Rapid Method for Construction and Installation of the Whole Chloroplast Genomes in Solanum Tuberosum","description":"","teamLead":"Bogumil Karas, Western University","team":"","text":"Award: c. £870k
Team: Vida Nasrollahi, Tahani Jaafar, Emma Walker + Daniel Nucifora, Western University
Bogumil + team’s objective is to develop a fast and efficient method for building and delivering engineered chloroplast genomes into the potato. They’ll find new ways to solve a long-standing difficulty in getting engineered genomes, which can be thought of as sets of genetic instructions, into target organelles (specific parts of plant cells). Their approach uses a natural process involving yeast to build large genetic ‘packages’, while potato cell walls are removed to create protoplasts: ‘naked’ cells for DNA delivery. This will allow for the reinstallation of the engineered genome into potato cells and the regeneration of a new plant. Overcoming this challenge could make it possible to produce crops that are more resilient to diseases, survive harsh climates, and be accessible in more geographies. It could also enable the potato to fix its own nitrogen (a complex genetic ability), potentially making it self-fertilising and thereby benefitting yield and reducing the need for artificial fertilisers. If successful in the potato, this technology could eventually be used in other major crop plants.
","label":"","cardId":"","mediaType":null,"modules":[]},{"title":"Engineering Synthetic Plant Artificial Chromosomes (synPACs)","description":"","teamLead":"Joshua James + Patrick Yizhi Cai, University of Manchester","team":"","text":"Award: c. £8m
Team: Anne Osbourn + David Seung, John Innes Centre | Anthony Hall, Conrad Nieduszynski + Carolina Grandellis, Earlham Institute
Traditional plant breeding can take many years and relies on random genetic mixing, making it slow to respond to urgent systemic challenges. To tackle that challenge, Joshua, Patrick + team aim to establish synthetic plant chromosome (synPAC) technologies, a novel system designed to introduce beneficial traits into plants – such as producing essential nutrients or increasing pest resistance – while maintaining their existing characteristics. Compared to traditional breeding, this approach will enable us to introduce beneficial traits quickly, and in a far more precise and predictable way. They’ll solve historic difficulties in large-scale DNA assembly and delivery into cells by using common baker’s yeast as a DNA ‘assembly line’. This will allow the team to build large segments of genetic material into synthetic chromosomes, then deliver them into plant cells. Success will make it possible to accelerate the development of more resilient and nutritious crops for a more secure and sustainable global food system.
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TA2 | Social + Ethical
\nWe’re funding two teams to build a deep understanding of the social and ethical considerations around novel technologies and lead on engagement with the public. These teams will work in close integration with teams working on Design, Build, Deliver (TA1) to ensure that learnings from a diversity of stakeholders can inform the ongoing technical work.
","tabId":"","modules":[{"type":"spacer-comp","data":{"type":"spacer-comp","cssSizeClass":"medium","height":0}},{"type":"creator-cards","data":{"type":"creator-cards","items":[{"title":"Futuring Biological Commons","description":"","teamLead":"Joy Zhang, University of Kent","team":"","text":"Award: c. £1.9m
Team: Mark Smales, University of Kent | Lynn Frewer, Newcastle University | Liz Rylott, University of York | Julian Little, Julian Little Communication | Katharine Daw, independent researcher
Joy + team will promote meaningful and actionable public discussion on new technological development in plant synthetic genomics, aiming to foster responsible innovation and support a healthy research community. To achieve this, they’ll carry out several social scientific activities that include building a cross-sector network for scientists, policymakers, industry, farmers, and the public; creating a training course for early-career plant scientists; publishing a new ethical framework; and producing sets of resources for the public. This team’s efforts will deliver a practical, forward-looking set of ethics and resources for novel technologies that considers care for new biological forms and the UK’s wider biodiversity, ultimately building a community focused on responsible innovation.
","label":"","cardId":"","mediaType":null,"modules":[]},{"title":"Cultivating Responsible Innovation for Plant Synthetic Genomics Through Experimental Governance","description":"","teamLead":"Robert Smith, University of Edinburgh","team":"","text":"Award: c. £1.8m
Team: Sarah Hartley, University of Exeter | Adrian Ely, University of Sussex | Joana Formosinho, University of Edinburgh | Sophia McCully, Nuffield Council on Bioethics | Sandra Knapp, Natural History Museum | Alexandra Davet, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
Rob + team will explore the social, ethical, and ecological dimensions of plant synthetic biology by engaging farmers, growers, plant biologists, and the wider public. They’ll generate discussion using commissioned artistic works, such as a short documentary, photography series, and biological art installation, and hosting public events across the UK. This work will also involve exploring key governance considerations, developing and testing new decision-making approaches, and translating learnings into resources that others can use. Closely integrated with this programme’s technical projects (Design, Build, Deliver), Rob’s team aims to equip the next generation of researchers with the skills and connections to think in new ways about why advanced genetic work in plants is worth doing, who might benefit from it, and who should be making decisions about it.
","label":"","cardId":"","mediaType":null,"modules":[]}]}},{"type":"spacer-comp","data":{"type":"spacer-comp","cssSizeClass":"small","height":0}},{"type":"spacer-comp","data":{"type":"spacer-comp","cssSizeClass":"large","height":0}},{"type":"quote","data":{"type":"quote","quote":"“The Synthetic Plants programme is a unique opportunity to build a community, uniting diverse stakeholders across the UK. This is our chance to foster a shared culture of open and constructive dialogue from the outset of technological breakthroughs.”
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