Synthetic Plants
Backed by £62.4m, this programme aims to catalyse a new generation of major crops that are more productive, resilient, and sustainable.
Our goal: to unite expertise in synthetic biology + plant biology, opening pathways to a new generation of major crops and future-proofing our agricultural system.
Representing eighty percent of the world’s biomass, with scope to provide everything from food to pharmaceuticals, plants are a critical lever for addressing the twin challenges of food insecurity and climate change. To unlock their potential, we must accelerate the pace of agricultural innovation.
Synthetic biology is already revolutionising the world of healthcare. Exploring its application to tailor the traits of plants has the potential to transform the agricultural industry and deliver valuable benefits ranging from food to pharmaceuticals and beyond.
We see a vital opportunity to unlock new plant capabilities that can meet the future needs of humankind. We aim to develop synthetic chromosomes and chloroplasts that are viable in a living plant. This will move beyond what can be accomplished with gene editing and imbue plants with new functionalities, from reducing agricultural water use to protecting crop yields in uncertain conditions.
Technical Areas
This programme is split into five Technical Areas (TAs), each with its own distinct objective:
Design, Build, Deliver
Focuses on developing multiple designs for units that deliver a simple plant trait.
Social + Ethical
Focuses on addressing the social + ethical considerations around synthetic plant technologies, ensuring responsible development + application.
Maintain
Focuses maintenance + replication of units within cells.
Species Transferability
Focuses on demonstrating units’ functionality in multiple crop species, including one monocot and one dicot.
Trait Complexity
Focuses on successfully delivering agriculturally relevant complex traits using synthetic units.
Funding
The first solicitation is now selecting R&D Creators to demonstrate that developing and implementing a functioning synthetic plant unit is possible; overcome historic bottlenecks to breakthroughs in the overlap between synthetic and plant biology; and understand the social and ethical considerations around synthetic plants and what's needed to navigate them.
We'll announce Creators early 2025; click below to be notified when we do.
Meet the programme team
Angie Burnett is a plant biologist and has spent the last decade focusing on understanding the power of plants to solve some of our most pressing challenges such as food insecurity, climate change and environmental degradation. Previously, Angie was a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge.
"Plants provide us with a wealth of natural resources, and the future possibilities are endless. This opportunity space will uncover new ways to interact with plants, helping plants to help people better."
Meet the programme team
As a plant scientist with a PhD from the University of Cambridge, Fabrizio has dedicated the last ten years to furthering our understanding of plant biology and seeing it translated to impactful products. Prior to joining ARIA, Fabrizio spent 5 years working in early stage technology startups, first at Synthace, where he was consulting Pharma and Crop Protection companies on lab automation and design of experiments, and more recently in the leadership team at Gardin, where he led the plant science team and headed delivery of the company R&D product offering.
Meet the programme team
Nivashinee has more than five years’ experience in programme management and project delivery. She led high profile projects at a leading global technology consultancy and has worked within delivery management in a variety of industries, ranging from edtech and life sciences to the aviation aftermarket. Nivashinee supports ARIA as an Operating Partner from Pace.
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