News

This report focuses on the governance of engineering biology and helps to highlight the innovation and potential in the field, including a new bio-economy. The report makes 6 key recommendations to the government, including governing engineering biology products by their properties, not the originating technologies and encouraging a formal commitment to responsible innovation.

Are you a UK-based Early Career Researcher (ECR) working in Engineering Biology and Environmental Biotechnology? Join us at EBIC ECR25 on 8-9 July 2025 at Edinburgh!  Offering a valuable platform to contextualize your research, engage in discussions, improve your communication skills, and connect with like-minded professionals. Our first ECR conference on Engineering Biology for Environmental Sustainability will explore all facets of Engineering Biology and Environmental Biotechnology, so you’re sure to discover something new from our cross-disciplinary community.

Here at EBIC we are delighted that our own Professor Ronan McCarthy’s work has been included in Nature’s seventh annual round-up of exciting innovations to watch in 2025.

Ronan, and his team at Brunel, are utilising microbes in the bioremediation of plastics. They are coaxing plastic-degrading bacteria to form dense biofilms on the surface of plastic fragments, allowing the bacteria to secrete enzymes onto the target plastics, without being washed away.

Prof. Coulon explores the use of synthetic biology to remove pollutants more efficiently & sustainably, whilst also delving into both challenges to adoption and the importance of biosecurity.

The article also explores our work here at EBIC: establishing the necessary testing and biosecurity frameworks to enable the deployment of pollution-targeting microbes within the national water and wastewater systems, as well as establishing a ‘closed loop’ system for testing at a larger scale in a real-world environment.

The project is intended to review current Scottish engineering biology expertise and collaborations and provide recommendations to highlight the future opportunities.  The project will also seek to set out the actions that should be progressed in order to position Scotland to maximise the emerging economic opportunities, including setting out where the respective ownership of relevant actions best sit.

We here at EBIC are very excited to announce the launch of our newsletter! Our quarterly newsletter is packed with exciting updates on our work, SynBio & Engineering Biology related news-stories, events and much more! You can sign up to join our mailing list from the link below.

In 2023 the UK Government formed the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), with a mission to make the UK a science superpower. Engineering Biology is one of the critical technologies proposed to make this aim a reality.

As part of this mission the National Vision for Engineering Biology was created. Within this Vision the DSIT committed to developing robust insights into public attitudes towards engineering biology, and thus commissioned Deltapoll to conduct a survey on public perceptions of engineering biology.

Building on a productive two decades of advancements in synthetic biology, engineering biology now promises to enable the implementation and scale-up of novel biological systems tailored to tackle urgent global challenges.

Here we explore the latest engineering biology approaches for the control and modification of bacterial biofilms with exciting new functionalities.

Thanks to advancements in DNA synthesis, editing, and sequencing and developments in AI, biological systems can now be engineered with greater speed and accuracy and with significantly reduced time and costs.

The latest report from the Capgemini Research Institute, Unlocking the potential of engineering biology: The time is now, looks at how engineering biology can be applied in different sectors and how it has the power to transform industries. It also examines biosolutions from a sustainability perspective.

EBIC are incredibly proud to have recruited a fantastic team of early career researchers (ECR), with a breadth of experience and an expansive skill set.

We would like to introduce you to our first ECR Rep – Dr Prabhakar Lal Srivastava. Prabhakar is a Research Fellow at the School of Environmental & Natural Sciences at Bangor University. Within EBIC Prabhakar’s role focuses on Theme 2: Environmental bioremediation and Theme 3: Wastewater & waste management.

“This is a must read….it opens the doorway to the hidden world of microbes and the incredible ‘things’ they produce, such as everyday products like detergents (aka biosurfactants). The unseen world of microbes and how they can be harnessed to do incredible things, is captivating, thrilling and entertaining.” Prof. Tony Gutierrez, Professor in Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology, Heriot-Watt University.

We are delighted to be a recipient of a funding injection from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) which will accelerate the commercialisation of new engineering biology ventures. Part of a £2.8 million UKRI seed corn fund has been awarded to Environmental Biotechnology Innovation Centre (EBIC) to bridge the gap between research and market-ready products and technologies, with comprehensive support and resources for researchers.

At EBIC, the seed corn funding will be awarded to researchers at the ten partner universities across five years, providing timely support to high-potential projects and helping to de-risk innovations and attract investment.

“This paper is a call to action. By publishing concurrently across journals like an emergency bulletin, we are not merely making a plea for awareness about climate change. Instead, we are demanding immediate, tangible steps that harness the power of microbiology and the expertise of researchers and policymakers to safeguard the planet for future generations”

Izzy Webb is the Deputy Director for Technology Strategy and Security in the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s (DSIT) Engineering Biology Team. In this blog post, she explains why the UK has published voluntary guidance to promote synthetic nucleic acid screening and who the guidance is intended for.

Professor Coulon is an invited keynote speaker at SIDISA 2024, the XII International Symposium on Environmental Engineering in Palermo, 1st-4th October 2024. Keynote: “Key Innovations and Challenges in Soil Remediation for a Sustainable Future”.

Cranfield University is delighted to announce that our Green Future Investments Ltd Future Frontiers Fund (GFIL-FFF) and Technology Accelerator Fund (GFIL-TAF) are open again for applications. Innovators and entrepreneurs can now apply to scale up ideas that address the challenges related to tackling climate change, protecting our environment, and delivering a Net Zero future. No match funding is required. Applications close 11th November 2024 at 5:30pm.