What is Engineering Biology?
The industrial revolution in the 19th century was a triumph of engineering, as humanity built machines to harness mechanical power from coal. The technological revolution, beginning in the 1980s, was a triumph of digital programming and smart gadget design. The Human Genome Project, at the turn of the 21st century, was a revolution in biology, laying out the genetic code of life - DNA.
Now, a new revolution is transforming our world: the biorevolution. It combines engineering, biology, AI and programming to create tools, processes, products and organisms that are greener, cleaner, more efficient and more effective than ever before.
Engineering biology, also known as synthetic biology, is industrialising DNA sequencing, manufacture and editing, making all of it cheaper and more accessible – rather like Microsoft Word did for text-editing. The discipline allows scientists to design or redesign living cells and their components to do new and useful things.
Engineering biology has the potential to impact every aspect of our lives and offers solutions to many of the real-world challenges that we face today. As an enabling technology, the applications of engineering biology are vast. It could revolutionise healthcare, industry, and agriculture to help us reach Net Zero goals.
Learn more about the applications of engineering biology beyond health on our deep biotech page.
Engineering Biology Advisory Committee (EBAC)
The Engineering Biology Advisory Committee (EBAC) is the voice for companies practising engineering biology in the UK across many sectors and industries, comprising a body of experts to support commercialisation and inform UK policy and regulation. The committee connects the UK’s engineering biology community and provides expert advice to Government and the BIA, working in close collaboration with other stakeholders.
The committee aims is to create a supportive ecosystem for translation and scale-up so that engineering biology can make a significant contribution towards sustainable growth in the bioeconomy. To achieve this, BIA continues to expand its engineering biology community through networking events, by sharing news and insights and promoting member companies’ technologies.
We are focusing our influencing work on supporting Government to implement of the National Vision for Engineering Biology, and by encouraging supportive policy developments in areas such as gene editing and biosecurity. Some of our engagement with Government comes through our members who sit on the expert groups such as the Engineering Biology Steering Group and the Biosecurity Leadership Council.Biosecurity Leadership Council.
BIA EBAC Chair and Vice Chair
Dr Edward Green
Edward is a microbiologist with a PhD in Biochemical Engineering from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology and over 25 years’ experience with anaerobic bacteria. He has pioneered technical improvements in microbial strain improvement and fermentation process development for industrial biotechnology applications contributing to numerous scientific publications and patents.
Edward is also a serial biotech entrepreneur having founded Green Biologics in 2004 and now a world leading fermentation company manufacturing renewable chemicals. More recently (2014), he founded CHAIN Biotech, a microbiome Company focused on development and commercialisation of microbial technology for the production and delivery of biotherapeutics to the gut. Edward supports the IB Leadership Forum, several NIBB management boards; C1NET and LBNET and the BBSRC advisory panel for Bioenergy and Industrial Biotechnology.
Sara Holland
After a PhD in fission yeast chromosome engineering, Sara spent 8 years as a postdoctoral researcher at Nottingham University in yeast molecular biology before joining Potter Clarkson 9 years ago. Now a UK and European patent attorney, Sara has a strong interest in helping to commercialise research originating from universities, particularly in the synthetic biology/engineering biology space. Educating people, particularly academics and scientist founders about IP and its critical role in bringing technology to the market is a key motivator and Sara has lectured on a number of Masters courses and EPSRC summer schools. Sara also co-founded a Women in Synthetic Biology network, alongside Liz Fletcher of the IBioIC and Fiona Mischel from Synbiobeta.
EBAC Members
Engineering biology publications
*This brochure was produced by the UK's Department for International Trade in association with the BioIndustry Association (BIA).