Synthetic biology companies engineer biological systems to create new products, processes and capabilities across healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing and environmental applications. The field combines biology, engineering and computational design to reprogram living systems.
This category includes companies working on:
Browse 114 UK synthetic biology companies below.
Living building materials and microbial construction biotechnology research
Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment is a Newcastle and Northumbria University research collaboration developing biologically enabled building materials and environmental technologies. Its work spans microbial mineralisation, self-healing construction materials, mycelium-based structures, building…
Engineering biology CRDMO for pharma and industrial biotech
Ingenza is a contract research, development, and manufacturing organisation applying engineering biology to solve manufacturing challenges across pharmaceuticals and industrial biotechnology. The company provides strain and cell line engineering, fermentation, bioprocess development, and analytical services for…
Novel gene synthesis technology for faster, lower-cost DNA production
Blue Beagle Bio is an early-stage biotechnology company developing a novel gene synthesis method aimed at delivering faster turnaround times and lower costs compared to existing commercial services. The company targets researchers in academia, SMEs, and the pharmaceutical industry, where access to accurate synthetic…
Precision fermentation and bio-based ingredients for food and feed
Mycofeast is an Oxford-headquartered industrial biotechnology company developing fermentation-derived ingredients for human and animal nutrition. It combines precision and biomass fermentation with microbial strain development and bioprocess scale-up to develop functional beverage ingredients, dairy proteins,…
Developing cell-free long-DNA manufacturing for precision breeding
Newcleic develops cell-free methods for manufacturing long DNA sequences, drawing on biochemical engineering research at UCL. Its technology aims to make complex DNA production more reliable, accessible and sustainable. Its initial focus is agricultural biotechnology, supporting precision breeding and plant…
Yeast-based production platform for veterinary antibody therapeutics
HERlab develops microbial production systems for animal therapeutics using synthetic biology. Its platform applies AI-driven selection across more than a thousand yeast species to match therapeutic proteins with suitable production hosts. It also develops purification technology with veterinary manufacturing costs in…
Cultivated animal fat ingredient for meat alternatives
Hoxton Farms is a cellular agriculture company producing cultivated pork fat as an ingredient for meat alternatives and processed food products. Using animal stem cells grown in proprietary bioreactors, the company produces real fat tissue without slaughter, guided by computational biology to optimise cell growth…
Yeast strain engineering platform for recombinant protein biomanufacturing
Phenotypeca is a synthetic biology company that engineers baker's yeast strains for the production of recombinant proteins, biosimilars, and vaccine antigens. Using proprietary quantitative trait loci technology, the company generates and screens large libraries of yeast variants to identify production strains with…
Precision fermentation platform for novel protein-based flavour ingredients
ReNewFood is an industrial biotech developing protein-based flavouring ingredients for the alternative food market using precision fermentation. Engineered microbial hosts serve as cell factories to produce flavour-active proteins, including molecules conferring meatiness, sweetness, and saltiness, identified through…
Biological sensors that detect early crop stress signals
Viridys Bio is a synthetic biology company developing non-GMO biosensors that detect volatile organic compounds released by stressed plants. The sensors give a visual colour change alert before pest or disease symptoms become visible, allowing growers to intervene earlier and more precisely. Designed to require no…
GMP-grade cell-free synthetic DNA for genetic medicines
4basebio is a biotechnology manufacturing company producing GMP-grade synthetic DNA for use in cell and gene therapies, mRNA vaccines and genome editing applications. Using an enzymatic, cell-free synthesis process, the company manufactures application-specific linear DNA constructs that overcome the purity and…
Fermentation-derived mycoprotein ingredient for sustainable food production
ENOUGH is a Glasgow-based industrial biotechnology company producing a complete protein ingredient made by fermenting fungi with grain-derived sugars. The zero-waste continuous fermentation process is integrated within existing biorefinery infrastructure, enabling large-scale production at competitive economics. Its…
Research collaboration and seed funding for engineering biology
Engineering Biology Interdisciplinary Research Centre is a University of Cambridge initiative supporting research and collaboration in synthetic and engineering biology. It connects academic groups, students and industrial partners across molecular engineering, biomaterials, instrumentation and responsible…
Optimised mRNA sequence design and therapeutic development software
Jantomarna Therapeutics is a biotechnology company providing computational design technology for protein-coding RNA therapeutics. Its proprietary genetic algorithm optimises mRNA and related RNA sequences for efficacy, safety and manufacturability using mechanistic sequence-function models. The company offers contract…
Peptide biopesticides for precision pest control in agriculture
SOLASTA Bio is a biotechnology company developing nature-inspired peptide insect control agents as sustainable alternatives to synthetic chemical pesticides. Its discovery platform identifies and optimises neuropeptide-based compounds that selectively target pest insects via a novel mode of action, while remaining…
Compostable polymer materials produced through microbial fermentation
Shellworks is a materials biotechnology company that develops and manufactures a bio-based, home-compostable polymer produced through microbial fermentation of plant-derived waste feedstocks. The polymer is formulated to replicate the functional properties of conventional plastic while biodegrading fully in home…
Precision-programmed human iPSC-derived cells for biomedical research
bit.bio is a Cambridge-based synthetic biology company that programmes human induced pluripotent stem cells into defined, mature cell types for use in pharmaceutical and academic research. Its precision cell programming technology produces consistent, characterised human cells at industrial scale, supporting drug…
Programmable synthetic organelle tools for protein expression and purification
Ailurus is a synthetic biology company that develops programmable biological systems and sells them as research tools to life science customers. Its current product uses synthetic membraneless organelles engineered through genetic code to streamline protein expression and purification in bacterial hosts, reducing…
Enzymatic DNA synthesis for pharmaceutical and biotechnology research
Camena Bioscience is a synthetic biology company that develops and supplies enzymatic gene synthesis technology to pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers. Its multi-enzymatic approach to DNA synthesis offers substantially improved accuracy and access to longer, more complex sequences compared to conventional…
Bio-based polyurethane alternatives from agricultural waste and seaweed
AlGreen is an industrial biotechnology company developing bio-based alternatives to petroleum-derived polyurethanes, which account for approximately 8% of global plastics. Using biotechnology, chemistry, and materials science, the company synthesises fully biodegradable, high-performance polyurethane substitutes from…