Scientific breakthroughs using robotics and AI for advances in medicine, biomanufacturing and sustainability are a step closer, following a significant government investment.
The Edinburgh Genome Foundry (EGF), one of the world’s leading bio-foundries, is collaborating with The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) to accelerate biological research and unlock new discoveries that benefit everyone.
The three-year programme will expand EGF’s highly automated laboratory that will use AI to design and robots to build genetically engineered cells for a range of applications in medicine, sustainability and agriculture.
The three-year ARIA Activation Partnership – a first for the University of Edinburgh – will provide ARIA-funded researchers with tailored biological research projects, AI-ready data and experiments in line with their key research priorities.
These include underexplored areas of medicine and science that are ripe for breakthroughs, such as treatments for neurological and viral diseases, biomanufacturing, creating sustainable food chains and building trust between humans and machines.
The Partnership will also benefit existing and future industry partners working with the Genome Foundry, on projects from vaccine development to turning waste plastic into high value products.
The bid was led by researchers from the School of Biological Sciences and Edinburgh Innovations (EI), the University’s commercialisation service.
Professor Susan Rosser, Chair of Synthetic Biology and Director of the Edinburgh Genome Foundry, University of Edinburgh, said:
The Edinburgh Genome Foundry is one of the most automated biofoundries in the world, working at the intersection between engineering biology, AI and automation.
It enables the high throughput design and engineering of cells for application in areas from health, such as therapeutic and vaccine engineering, to sustainability, for example biological metal and plastic recycling and food security.
This is exactly the kind of frontier science that ARIA is driving. By becoming an Activation Partner and working with ARIA Creators and others, we can generate high-quality, AI-ready data at a scale that turns individual experiments into continuous learning systems. This is the infrastructure that AI-enabled biology needs to bring economic and social benefits for all, and we are building it here in the UK. ”
Dr Andrea Taylor, CEO of Edinburgh Innovations, said:
AI can now propose millions of biological designs, but those designs are only worth something once they are built and tested. This is what the cutting-edge capabilities of the Edinburgh Genome Foundry and its excellent team, led by Dr Rennos Fragkoudis, have to offer.
By working with ARIA researchers and industry partners, we can turn ideas into huge advances in fields from therapeutics and biomanufacturing, to sustainability and agritech, unlocking innovation for all. ”
Professor Liz Baggs, Vice-Principal Research and Innovation, University of Edinburgh, said:
The University is proud to host the UK’s largest multi-disciplinary community of engineering biology researchers. Combining the expertise of our scientists with the increased automation and robotics capabilities of the Genome Foundry through ARIA will help us bridge the gap between digital design and physical reality, helping us tackle the climate and environment crisis, shape the future of health and care and harness data, digital and AI for public good. ”
Pranay Shah, Head of Special Projects at ARIA, said:
ARIA backs frontier research at the edge of what is scientifically possible, and advanced AI capabilities are transforming what this means. However, much of science needs to happen in the physical world and this is increasingly the bottleneck to AI-driven acceleration of R&D.
This is why we're excited to partner with The Edinburgh Genome Foundry who bring world-class expertise in engineering biology, automation and AI-enabled experimentation directly to ARIA's funded researchers.
Together, we can help some of the UK's most ambitious research teams make biology more programmable and generate the data and insights needed to explore new frontiers at a previously unimaginable scale across our opportunity spaces. ”
