Forge Genetics announces Innovate UK-funded collaboration with Kinva Bio

Non-model bacterial species often contain interesting and commercially useful biology, but accessing that biology can be difficult. Unlike model organisms such as Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis, many environmental microorganisms have no established genetic toolkits and can resist standard approaches to DNA transfer and genome engineering.

This is a particular challenge for marine microorganisms. Strains isolated from marine environments frequently have distinct biology, unusual regulatory systems and defence mechanisms that can inhibit transformation. In some cases, the organism’s own internal genetic systems act as a barrier to incoming DNA, blocking early attempts at genetic manipulation before strain engineering can begin.

Kinva Bio has been awarded Innovate UK funding for a project titled Engineering a Novel Marine Bacterium for Multi-Product Bioactive Manufacturing. The project focuses on a novel marine bacterial strain with the potential to act as a chassis for the production of high-value bioactive ingredients.

Forge Genetics is collaborating with Kinva Bio as a key technical partner on the project. Using genetic and functional data available to Kinva, Forge identified biological quirks of Kinva's unique strain and designed a workflow to overcome these barriers. This approach is intended to establish the foundations for genetic manipulation in a strain where no off-the-shelf toolkit exists.

Non-model species are a Forge Genetics speciality. Spun out of the Synthetic Biology Research Centre at the University of Nottingham, Forge Genetics develops genetic tools for industrially relevant but difficult-to-work-with microorganisms. The company combines strain-specific troubleshooting with proprietary genome engineering approaches to enable useful biology in organisms that have historically been hard to access.

The collaboration will initially focus on developing enabling tools for the Kinva strain, including DNA transfer workflows and proof-of-concept genetic manipulation. The next steps are to insert and delete genes of interest, providing the first practical routes to study and engineer the organism in a targeted way.

Kinva Bio and Forge Genetics are also continuing their collaboration through multi-omic approaches to deepen their understanding of the strain. These data will help guide future genetic modifications designed to modulate yield and expand the portfolio of products that can be produced by the chassis organism.

By combining Kinva Bio’s access to novel marine microorganisms with Forge Genetics’ expertise in non-model microbial engineering, the project aims to unlock new routes to sustainable, multi-product bioactive manufacturing. Developing robust tools for unusual microbial species is an important step towards realising the potential of microbial biodiversity and delivering on the promise of synthetic biology.