UCL Spin-out Synthace awarded £500,000 Synthetic Biology Grant

Synthace, a UCL spin-out, has been awarded funding from the Technology Strategy Board for a collaborative project with UCL and the University of Manchester. The company was one of over a dozen cutting-edge synthetic biology companies which received part of a £5.3 million government cash injection into research in this area, with the investment from the Technology Strategy Board and Research Councils helping to fund 15 projects across the UK. Synthetic biology is an emerging, multidisciplinary approach at the intersection of engineering, bioscience, chemistry, and information technology, and builds atop many areas of innovation in which the UK has traditionally been a world leader. It aims to design and engineer novel biologically based parts, devices and systems, as well as redesign existing natural biological systems. "This funding will enable us to bring together a unique suite of technologies for the rapid engineering of a micro-organism which can produce a commercially high-value chemical," says Sean Ward, Synthace's CEO. "The project will demonstrate a new way of engineering biology, with timescales in months rather than years, which will impact sectors across the UK and global economies." - "UCL is a global powerhouse of biomedical research and we have an unstinting commitment to maximising the benefit of medical research for patients" - Stephen Caddick, UCL Speaking during a visit to Sythace's laboratories at UCL on Thursday, Universities and Science Minister David Willetts said that synthetic biology is one of the eight key areas identified by the Government as playing an increasingly important part of the global economy in coming years.