Contract Research Offerings

We have a proprietary genome-editing tool shown to be highly effective in a broad range of bacteria, which allows us to generate knockouts and knock-ins without using any CRISPR-related proteins and avoiding all other licensing issues. That means we can offer you strains free from any third-party licensing claims or royalties.

Difficult to transform bacteria is one of our specialties. Our founders and key research scientists have a wealth of expertise handling bacteria which are resistant to genetic transformation. Using a suite of techniques including the evasion of restriction systems, bespoke conjugal donor strains, and the optimisation of transformation protocols we can render problematic species genetically amenable.

We operate within a containment level 2 laboratory allowing us to handle pathogenic hazard group 2 species. We also have Class 2 clearance from the Health and Safety Executive to perform genetic manipulations on various pathogenic hazard group 2 strains.

We use state of the art Don Whitley anaerobic workstations which allow us to manipulate anaerobic species easily. There is a wealth of experience in our team working on anaerobes, including our co-founder Nigel Minton who is director of the Synthetic Biology Research Centre and formerly the Clostridia Research Group.

We have access to uniquely specialist facilities for performing various gas fermentations using Dasgip or Bioflo systems. A rigorous safety setup and suite of monitoring systems allow us to work with explosive gases such as carbon monoxide and hydrogen. We can perform fermentations with input gas setups such as:

- H2 + O2 + CO2 (for hydrogen oxidising “Knallgas” bacteria such as Cupriavidus necator)
- CO (for acetogens such as Clostridium autoethanogenum)
- CO2 + H2 (also for acetogens)
- CH4 + O2 (for methanotrophs such as Methylococcus capsulatus)
- MeOH + CO2 (for methanol-utilising species such as Eubacterium limosum)