How regions are driving the UK biosolutions ecosystem

^{Biosolutions are a billion-pound national asset delivering growth in every region of the UK}

Biosolutions innovation is springing up from specialised clusters across the country. With PM Andy Burnham basing his agenda on regional devolution and biosolutions proponent Chris McDonald MP named Science Minister, the technology is poised to deliver a sustainable and secure future.

This diverse ecosystem enables the benefits of innovation and technology development to be spread across the regions, namely skilled job creation, and regional reindustrialisation.

The companies highlighted in the BIA BioSolutions ecosystem map demonstrate how regional capabilities translate into real-world industrial impact. Here is a closer look at how companies across the UK are driving this momentum, showing how each contributes to a fast-scaling bioeconomy.

Bright Biotech (Manchester): unlocking plant-based biomanufacturing

Manchester-based start-up Bright Biotech modifies plant DNA to create groups of proteins known as ‘growth factors’. These have a range of potential applications.

For example, in the food sector, Bright Biotech can produce growth factor proteins on a much larger scale than traditional fermentation methods, which could help to move cell-cultivated meat from the lab to the dinner plate.

The method focusses on production scalability and efficiency, involving only scaling-up from seeds, harvesting leaf material, and purifying. Its technology has a lower carbon footprint compared to competing systems, especially microbial fermentation and animal cell culture.

Extracellular (Bristol): enabling biosolutions at scale

From cultivated meat to plant cell culture and bioactives, Bristol-based CDMO Extracellular enables  cell-based product developers to accelerate discovery, overcome production hurdles and bring products to market faster.

Its services include bioprocessing and scale-up, media optimisation, cell-line development and access to license-free cell banks.

Extracellular began with a focus on cell-cultivated meat, an alternative to traditional meat with lower climate, water and land use impact. Since then, it has expanded, building expertise in plant-cell culture asthe team recognised that producers across wider industries, including those working on cosmetics and materials, faced similar challenges when scaling from lab to commercial production.

Fermtech (Oxford): sustainable cocoa reduction

Oxford-based Fermtech was founded to revolutionise food sustainability. The company is creating cocoa-enhancing ingredients that save 98% CO2 emissions versus cocoa.

By transforming spent grains through fermentation, Fermtech is cutting costs, reducing carbon footprints and helping businesses adapt to the cocoa crisis.

Cytomos (Edinburgh): converging electronics and biology

Edinburgh-based Cytomos is repurposing microelectronics to enable the cost-effective use of biotechnologies and allow economies of scale.

Its proprietary predictive cell analysis technology Celledonia® eliminates the labelling, assay setup and delay between result and response bottlenecks of traditional cell analysis.

By measuring intrinsic cell properties directly, Celledonia® delivers rapid, data-rich, and predictive insights empowering bioprocessing and cell line development teams to make confident, real-time decisions that drive faster process optimisation.

Phase Biolabs (Nottingham): early-stage innovation engine

Nottingham-based Phase Biolabs recycles CO2 into chemicals and fumes using fermentation. Currently, only 0.001% of CO2 is being recycled due to high costs, and Phase is poised to address this.

Its technology bolts onto existing CO2-emitting facilities, converting the molecule directly into ethanol. This is used across various sectors, including cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, inks, e-fuels and food and beverage.

ProColl (Swansea): next-generation collagen manufacturing

ProColl is a Swansea-based synthetic biology company that manufactures humanised collagen and other high-value proteins at scale.

The founders responded to the fact they could not source a supply of collagen that had consistent properties across batches. Once they fixed this problem, the technology was spun out of Swansea University’s Faculty of Science and Engineering to build a business.

Today, it sells to companies in fields ranging from cell therapy, regenerative medicine and aesthetics to food & beverage, manufacturing in South Wales.

SOLASTA Bio (Glasgow): redefining crop protection

Spun out of the University of Glasgow, SOLASTA Bio has developed a platform based on bioengineered peptides that selectively target agricultural pests.

Unlike conventional agrochemicals, SOLASTA’s approach is built on target specificity, with each peptide designed for a narrow insect group to reduce ecological damage. This addresses current issues of traditional insect control practices harming non-targeted species.

The company is addressing a critical global challenge: balancing food security with ecological sustainability. Its rapid scale-up, supported by UKRI and private investment, illustrates how Scotland’s ecosystem enables efficient translation from academic research to commercial biotech solutions.

The UK’s competitive advantage

The UK biosolutions sector is not defined by a single cluster but by a network of highly specialised regional ecosystems, each solving different parts of the value chain.

This distributed model provides resilience, accelerates innovation, and positions the UK as a global leader in sustainable, biology-driven solutions.