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.
Technology innovation centre for process scale-up and manufacturing
CPI is a UK innovation centre and social enterprise that helps companies develop, scale and commercialise new products and processes across pharmaceuticals, bioprocessing, health technology and sustainable manufacturing. As a founding member of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, CPI provides access to specialist…
Bio-based compostable polymers and industrial materials development
Biome Bioplastics is a developer of renewable, biodegradable and compostable polymer materials for industrial applications. It formulates bio-based resins and tailored blends for films, coatings, injection moulding and other conventional plastics processing methods. Its research combines polymer chemistry, materials…
Precision fermentation platform producing sweet proteins for sugar reduction
MadeSweetly is a food biotechnology company producing nature-identical sweet proteins through precision fermentation. Using non-model yeast engineered with plant-derived DNA sequences, the platform synthesises proteins that enhance sweetness and mask bitterness with zero calories and no glycaemic impact. Agri-food…
Computationally designed broadly protective vaccines against pandemic viruses
DIOSynVax is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing broadly protective vaccines using a computational antigen design platform. The company's technology applies protein structure modelling and immune optimisation to engineer synthetic vaccine antigen payloads targeting conserved regions of viruses, enabling…
Bacteriophage platform for targeted bacterial crop disease management
Greenleaf Bio is a biotech developing engineered bacteriophage-based crop protectants against bacterial plant pathogens. The platform combines synthetic biology, phage engineering, and machine learning to accelerate the discovery and development of species-specific, non-toxic biopesticides that offer an…
AI-designed enzymes for enzymatic recycling of plastics and textiles
Epoch Biodesign is a London-based industrial biotech developing AI-engineered enzymes for the biorecycling of mixed plastics and textiles. The company's platform uses machine learning to design enzymes that deconstruct waste materials at the molecular level, recovering high-purity chemical building blocks for…
Cell-free biocatalyst platform for sustainable industrial chemical manufacturing
FabricNano is an industrial biotechnology company developing cell-free enzyme catalysts for chemical manufacturing. Its immobilisation engineering platform uses high-throughput screening to identify scalable support materials that improve enzyme stability and activity. Predictive Immobilisation Plates enable…
Molecular biology enzymes and UK scientific reagent support
New England Biolabs (UK) is the British sales and technical-support subsidiary of New England Biolabs, supplying molecular biology reagents to research laboratories. Its catalogue includes restriction enzymes, DNA and RNA modifying enzymes, nucleic acid purification products, PCR reagents and sequencing library…
Gene editing platform restoring disease resistance in crop species
Resurrect Bio is a plant biotechnology company developing disease-resistant crops through a proprietary gene editing platform. Using computational biology and high-throughput plant screening, the company identifies and restores native resistance genes that have been suppressed by pathogens or lost through selective…
RNA-based gene control systems for safer cell and gene therapies
Concinnity Genetics is a biotechnology company developing RNA-based control systems that enable precise regulation of gene therapies after administration. Its technology allows therapeutic gene expression to be modulated or reduced in response to side effects or clinical need, addressing a fundamental safety…
Cyanobacterial synthetic biology platform producing sustainable specialty chemicals
Deep Blue Biotech is a biotechnology company using genetically engineered cyanobacteria to produce high-value specialty chemicals as sustainable alternatives to fossil-derived ingredients. The platform uses carbon dioxide, light, and water as primary inputs, guided by AI-driven metabolic modelling, to manufacture…
Historical gene therapy platform targeting cancer stem cells
Cellinta was a University of Edinburgh-linked biotechnology company established to develop selective gene therapies targeting cancer stem cells in solid tumours. Its approach used stem-cell-specific regulatory sequences to restrict therapeutic gene expression to tumour-driving cell populations. The technology…
Cell-based platform for next-generation mRNA medicines
Sensible Biotechnologies is a biotechnology company developing a cell-based platform for the design, optimisation, and manufacturing of high-quality mRNA. Using engineered living cells and precision fermentation, the platform produces low-immunogenicity mRNA at scale, addressing fundamental limitations of conventional…
End-to-end viral vector design, production and gene delivery
VectorBuilder is a global provider of gene delivery solutions offering an integrated suite of research products, custom services, and clinical-grade manufacturing. The company's platform spans viral vector design and cloning, packaging of lentiviral, AAV, and adenoviral vectors, plasmid and IVT mRNA manufacture,…
Algal biotechnology company developing Chlorella-based food ingredients
Algenuity Limited is an algal biotechnology company that develops and supplies Chlorella-based ingredients for food and beverage manufacturers. Using proprietary strain engineering and heterotrophic fermentation, the company produces white Chlorella, a neutral-coloured, allergen-free, protein-rich ingredient suitable…
Engineered probiotic bacteria producing peptide therapeutics inside the body
Hijack Bio develops engineered probiotic bacteria designed to produce and release peptide therapeutics inside the body. The synthetic biology approach aims to reduce reliance on conventional external manufacturing and cold-chain distribution while enabling oral delivery of peptide drugs. Potential applications include…
AI-driven platform engineering better crop varieties
Wild Bioscience is an agricultural biotechnology company developing next-generation crop varieties using a platform that combines evolutionary biology with machine learning. By mining genetic variation in wild plant relatives, the company identifies and designs gene edits targeting traits including nitrogen use…
Gene-edited crop traits for yield under climate stress
ALORA is an agricultural biotechnology company developing gene-edited crop traits that redirect plant energy from stress defence to yield. Using multiplex gene editing, the company targets regulatory pathways controlling how plants respond to heat, salinity, and drought, aiming to increase productivity across growing…
Organelle engineering platform developing novel crop traits for agriculture
Cytotrait is a biotechnology company developing novel traits for food and agricultural crops. Its MOSS platform introduces genes and gene edits into plant organelles, including chloroplasts and mitochondria, enabling rapid homoplasmy across the plant. The approach aims to improve yield, resilience, disease resistance…
Programmable iPSC cell therapies for cancer and autoimmunity
Xap Therapeutics is a Cambridge-based biotechnology company developing a synthetic biology platform for next-generation cell therapeutics. The company applies CRISPR technology to engineer induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into a universal "chassis" cell that can be functionalised with engineered receptors and…