Waste textiles from sailing boats could be given a new lease of life as a result of a research project upcycling plastic fibres from sails into new chemicals such as vanillin – the compound used in cosmetics and food products for a vanilla flavour and smell.

IBioIC’s second annual Careers Day has seen over 100 attendees from industry and the student cohort meet at the University of Strathclyde’s Insight Institute.

IBioIC team members Annelie du Plessis, Neil Renault, and Albert Serrano Gomez had a particularly fruitful experience at SeAgriculture in June, with new members, new work, and new inspiration for delivering support to the seaweed industry.

The IBioIC team attracted a full house with people standing in the aisles to hear about the opportunities presented by engineering biology at this year’s Chem UK conference in Birmingham.

The biotech sector in Galicia has a cutting end biotechnology industry, exciting start ups and spin outs, and several world class research institutes. They have 160 biotechnology companies, which an annual turnover of more than €1.4 bn and, like Scotland, has ambition plans to fast track this by 2030. The biotech sector generates 5,600 direct jobs in Galicia and is growing at around 10% per year.

Aberdeen-based biotechnology company NCIMB has kicked-off a new research project to demonstrate novel enzyme technology with an exciting array of potential applications in the pharmaceutical, food & drink and environmental sectors. The work is being supported with a Bio-based Manufacturing in Scotland grant from Innovate UK.

Heriot Watt University and FlexBio have been awarded funds from Innovate UK as part of the RESILIENCE Centre of Excellence, an Innovate UK and Office for Life Sciences-funded programme which is intended to strengthen the UK’s Medicines Manufacturing skills pipeline, from outreach, awareness, and training in schools, to postgraduate and CPD study.

In early May, IBioIC co-hosted a UK pavilion at the world’s largest synthetic biology event in San Jose, California to showcase the best of UK’s engineering biology capability. 

The Inward Investment Catalyst Fund from Interface and the Scottish Government is aimed at attracting businesses out with Scotland, through developing partnerships with universities, research institutes, colleges and innovation centres.

Addressing heavy metal pollution is one of the most hotly contested areas of environmental research. Several individual treatments, namely, physical, chemical, and biological are being utilised to remove heavy metals from the environment – but they all face challenges in terms of sustainability, expensiveness and in-situ treatment failure. In this article, Leigh Cassidy discusses SEM’s latest approach to the issue.

Carbogenics has announced the opening of their new cutting-edge site, dedicated to the production of their flagship product, CreChar, set to revolutionise the anaerobic digestion (AD) market.

Researchers in Scotland are investigating the potential of converting sewage sludge into a mineral-rich material that could be used to treat water impacted by eutrophication and algal blooms – a phenomenon increasingly affecting lochs and rivers, associated with climate change.

The Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) has launched a refreshed Scottish Bioresource Mapping Tool to help more businesses make the case for investing in biotechnology facilities and processes, boosting the country’s bioeconomy.

A Scottish startup using seaweed as the base for natural fabric dyes could help fashion and textiles manufacturers improve sustainability and reduce their reliance on petrochemical-derived colourings. 

An Edinburgh-based startup is exploring a new technology that could create gluten-safe food products, such as bread, while retaining the taste and texture of the real thing.

The FlexBio project at Heriot-Watt University showcases the innovative use of bacteria to derive valuable products from seaweed, signaling a new era in sustainable biotechnology.

IBioIC members have been successful in the £12 million REforMM CR&D competition from @UK Research and Innovation. Successful organisations will complete collaborative R&D projects to de-risk new approaches to improve resource efficiency.

Prozymi Biolabs Ltd and the University of Edinburgh win Innovation of the Year – sponsored by HGF Ltd at the Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards for developing a pipeline for identification and characterisation of novel gluten-degrading enzymes.

Aberdeen-based biotechnology company NCIMB is teaming up with innovative Newcastle University Spinout GitLife Biotech in a 12-month project that will investigate the therapeutic potential of gut microbes. The project aims to develop a new class of therapeutics based on living bacteria to prevent or treat disease. The work has been funded by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

Nearly £850,000 of investment brings crucial infrastructure to Scotland for the first time

The funding, awarded to the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) through Scottish Enterprise, will support the purchase and installation of a 300-litre fermenter to be hosted at FlexBio – the innovation centre’s scale-up facility based at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.