Headquartered in Cambridge, Constructive Bio, a biotechnology company secured $15 million in seed funding. It also got an exclusive license from the Medical Research Council (MRC) to IP developed by Professor Jason Chin’s Laboratory (Chin Lab) at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC-LMB).
The seed round was led by Ahren alongside Amadeus Capital Partners (which backed iPRONICS and Nuclera) General Inception and OMX Ventures.
Scales synthetic biology research
The funding will be used to build out the technology platforms for commercial application, including assembling synthetic genomes and synthesis of non-natural polymers using bacterial strains. Also, the investment will be used to scale and commercialise ground-breaking synthetic biology research of Professor Jason Chin.
Professor Jason Chin, FMedSci, FRS, Programme Leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Chief Scientific Officer of Constructive Bio said: “I am pleased that we have attracted significant support and seed funding to establish Constructive Bio and capture this opportunity. By taking inspiration from nature and reimagining what life can become we have the opportunity to build the sustainable industries of the future.”
Dr Ola Wlodek, CEO of Constructive Bio said: “I am excited to join Constructive Bio at inception and work with Jason to commercialise this ground-breaking research. The technologies use biology to access novel chemical space and generate polymers with a wide range of commercial applications across multiple industries, with an initial focus on bioproduction where our technology has significant commercial value in the near term.”
Matthew Newcombe-Ellis, Operating Partner, Ahren Commercial Engine, said: “We look forward to working with the company, its commercial partners, the MRC, and our co-investors, all of whom have provided key contributions, to deliver on this substantial opportunity over the coming years.”
Pierre Socha, Partner, Amadeus Capital Partners, added: “If we think of cellular biosystems as biological factories, we need to be able to write the cell’s operating system in a rapid, accurate and affordable way. The foundational challenge then becomes how to write the DNA of whole living organisms, from scratch, to optimise the manufacturing of these bioproducts. And that’s what Constructive Bio is going after.”
Builds reference techbio platform
Constructive Bio is an MRC spin-out that has exclusively licensed IP developed by the laboratory of Prof. Jason Chin at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. Constructive Bio was set up to build the reference techbio platform, a cellular factory for the assembly of synthetic genomes or the synthesis of non-natural polymers using bacterial strains.
The biotech firm will use the MRC technologies to synthesise polymers with non-natural amino acids for commercial applications across a range of industries including novel therapeutics and antibiotics, enhanced agriculture, manufacturing and materials.
