Biosolutions: Engineering a Sustainable Future
The climate crisis demands urgent action across all sectors. While energy and transport often take the spotlight, biology itself offers some of the most scalable solutions.
Advances in AI, genome editing, and industrial biotechnology have given rise to biosolutions, formerly called deep biotech. These innovations tackle major challenges, from pollution and waste to climate change.
What are biosolutions?
Biosolutions use engineering biology, manipulating genetic code, enhanced by AI, genomics, and automation. They accelerate the transition to a sustainable, resilient, and competitive future inspired by nature.
Unlike traditional biotech focused on healthcare, biosolutions apply these tools across industries such as agriculture, fashion, fuel, and packaging.
Biosolutions as a cornerstone for net zero
Biosolutions are central to climate tech. They help reduce fossil fuel dependence and support a sustainable bioeconomy. The UK Government predicts that engineering biology could boost GDP by 1.55% by 2035.
McKinsey estimates that by 2030-2040, biosolutions could create $2-4 trillion in direct global economic impact.
Key application areas
Novel food: transforming agriculture
Biosolutions can reform pesticides, develop resilient crops, and create sustainable proteins through cellular agriculture and precision fermentation.
Cultivated meat and precision-fermented ingredients could cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 92% and land use by up to 95% compared with industrial farming.
Biobased chemicals and materials
Over 90% of global chemical production relies on fossil fuels. Biosolutions enable bio-based alternatives, such as sustainable fabrics, bioplastics, and active ingredients.
Tackling environmental pollution
Engineered enzymes can break down hard-to-recycle plastics and microfibers. Novel biomaterials can remove pollutants like PFAS from water, reducing environmental harm.
Next-generation biofuels
High-emission sectors like transport and shipping need sustainable fuels. Engineered microalgae and other organisms efficiently produce carbon-absorbing, high-energy biofuels.
Spotlight on UK innovators
- Resurrect Bio: Uses AI and precision breeding to enhance crop disease resistance, reducing reliance on chemical pesticides.
- Twig: Designs microbes to produce sustainable ingredients from waste feedstocks for cosmetics and other industries.
- Epoch Biodesign: Engineers enzymes to depolymerise plastics into recyclable materials, creating a circular economy solution.
- Constructive Bio: Rewrites genomes to create novel proteins and programmable biomaterials at scale.
Overcoming regulatory and economic hurdles
Streamlining regulation
Biosolutions often move faster than traditional regulatory frameworks, which can slow investment.
The UK has taken steps with the Genetic Technologies Act 2023, the Engineering Biology Regulators Network (EBRN), and the Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO). These bodies speed up access to new technologies and provide transparent pathways to market.
Expanding scale-up infrastructure
High costs and limited facilities prevent UK companies from scaling. The government has allocated £184 million to increase access to affordable scale-up infrastructure and retain economic value domestically.
Unlocking finance
Later-stage funding remains a challenge. While the sector raised £1.09 billion between 2018 and 2024, sustained investment is crucial.
The BIA advocates for ringfenced public funding, R&D tax relief, and a dedicated engineering-biology team within British Patient Capital to channel institutional investment into the sector.
A pathway to a resilient bioeconomy
Biosolutions support up to 10 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. The UK risks losing its global lead if action is delayed.
By supporting the biosolutions community, removing regulatory barriers, improving access to finance, and expanding infrastructure, the UK can accelerate a biorevolution. This will create a sustainable, resilient, and prosperous future.
Join the biosolutions movement
The BIA encourages companies, investors, and policymakers to explore the full Deep Biotech report, access financial insights, and become part of the growing biosolutions community shaping the next chapter of industrial biology.
