Trace each result
Connect genetic designs, strain histories, samples and measurements.
Engineering biology for industrial biotechnology
Your engineering partner for synthetic biology
We combine genetic engineering, experimental analysis and custom software to help R&D teams develop biological systems and decide what to build or test next.
Discuss a collaborationLed by Aaron M. New, PhD - formerly a senior engineer and technical lead for genome-scale engineering projects at Ginkgo Bioworks.
Debugging biology
Understand what changed, measure what matters, decide what to build next.
Life is a branching process. Engineering organisms means working with that history: intended edits and spontaneous mutations shape each lineage and influence how subsequent changes behave. Some changes support our goals, while others undermine the performance we want.
We debug biology by connecting genetic designs, strain ancestry and experimental results. Sequencing, quantitative analysis and targeted experiments help us investigate unexpected behaviour and choose the next engineering step.
Explain unexpected behaviour
Investigate why observed traits differ from the intended behaviour.
Guide the next design
Prioritise genetic changes and experiments based on your product objectives.
Capabilities
Genetic and protein engineering
Genetic design and experimental strategies for microbial strains and mammalian cells, including complex DNA constructs, genetic libraries and pathway engineering. Protein engineering, with a particular focus on enzymes. We agree responsibilities for design, construction and laboratory testing with your R&D team.
Experimental design, data analysis and software
Design of experiments, fermentation data analysis, sequencing analysis and variant interpretation. Custom scientific software, database architecture and reproducible workflows connect genetic designs, samples and results.
Identify trade-offs and choose the next experiments
Analyse relationships between measured traits, genotypes, and process variables to prioritise strains and conditions for follow-up.
How we work
Expertise that stays with your programme
We undertake focused R&D projects for clients and collaborate with development partners to build new technologies and products. Each collaboration brings together complementary expertise, with agreed objectives, responsibilities and milestones.
Define the objective
Agree the target, baseline, measurements and success criteria.
Deliver the project
Combine the agreed engineering, analysis and software work, reviewing progress at defined milestones.
Put the results to work
Depending on the project, outputs include annotated genetic designs, experimental plans, analysis reports and documented software. We review the results together and identify the next development steps.
Applications
Whether you’re developing a new biological system, investigating unexpected performance or deciding what to test next, we connect genetic engineering and experimental evidence to move the work forward.
Genetic and experimental engineering
Production strains, peptides and proteins
Host and genetic construct design for peptide, protein and metabolite production
Pathway and multi-gene engineering
Coordinate genetic changes to improve pathway function and production
Protein and enzyme engineering
Design and evaluate sequence variants against functional and production objectives
Genome-scale engineering
Staged genome refactoring and recoding around an industrial objective
Genetic code expansion
Genetic and experimental design for incorporating non-canonical amino acids (ncAAs) into peptides and proteins
Engineering beneficial traits
Develop approaches to introduce useful traits in organisms without established breeding strategies
Data analysis and computational tools
Strain and process selection for scale-up
Use experimental data and machine learning to prioritise strains and process conditions for testing at larger production scales
Experimental design and bioprocess optimisation
Design informative experiments and analyse fermentation data to understand variability, compare conditions and prioritise improvements
Genetic variation and QTL mapping
Investigate relationships between genetic variants and measured traits through quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping
Scientific software and data integration
Build databases, analysis tools and reproducible workflows connecting designs, strain histories, samples and results
Organisms we’ve worked with
- Yeasts
- S. cerevisiae · Pichia pastoris / K. phaffii · Yarrowia
- Bacteria
- E. coli · L. plantarum · B. subtilis · L. reuteri
- Other systems
- Protists · Mammalian cells
We also welcome projects in other hosts, including organisms without established genetic engineering methods.
Products and sectors
Metabolites and proteins for pharmaceutical, food and industrial biotechnology applications
Aaron M. New, PhD
Founder, Cisgenica
Aaron brings more than 20 years of experience across synthetic biology, quantitative genetics and computational biology. At Ginkgo Bioworks, he worked as a senior engineer and technical lead for genome-scale engineering projects, connecting genetic design, experimental strategy and data analysis.
His research experience includes Harvard, Stanford and KU Leuven, with work involving AB InBev during his PhD. He founded Cisgenica to develop technologies for industrial organism engineering, working with R&D partners on genetic engineering, experimental analysis and software.
Connect with Aaron on LinkedIn