Precision Mitochondria
Backed by at least £55m, this programme sits within the Bioenergetic Engineering opportunity space and aims to create a foundational toolkit for engineering the mitochondrial genome in vivo.
Our goal
Mitochondria are central to complex life, and their dysfunction is a major contributor to many major diseases and the ageing process. Yet our ability to investigate the precise nature of that link is limited, because the tools to manipulate mitochondrial DNA remain rudimentary, decades behind what is available for nuclear and prokaryotic DNA. We propose building a revolutionary toolkit to precisely study and edit mitochondrial DNA. This will bring the full power of modern genetic engineering to the mitochondrion for the first time, empowering scientists to rigorously and robustly investigate the link between mitochondrial health and disease. In the long term, it could lead to groundbreaking therapies that reprogramme mitochondria to fight disease and potentially even enhance cellular capabilities. We want to bring together a diverse team of experts from fields like synthetic biology, virology, and nanotechnology to tackle this challenge.
Technical areas
The programme is split into five technical areas, each with their own distinct objectives.
Deliver
Focused on the delivery of nucleic acid payloads across the mitochondrial double membrane into the matrix.
Express
Focused on mitochondrial genome engineering and the expression of functional proteins or RNAs.
Maintain
Focused on ensuring the persistence, replication, and functionality of engineered mtDNA.
Transfer
Focused on achieving in vivo mitochondrial engineering via transplantation or direct toolkit delivery.
Standardisation, Translation, and Reproducibility
Focused on providing replication, standardisation, and translation capacity across the programme.
Submit your concept papers by 27 October
For decades, mitochondria have been the last major genome beyond our engineering reach. This programme will fund the creation of a foundational toolkit to finally address this challenge. The success of this toolkit being validated by a single, unifying galvanising demonstration: the persistent, reproducible expression of a novel gene from engineered mitochondrial DNA in a vertebrate system.
We are inviting proposals from interdisciplinary teams that bridge fields such as mitochondrial biology, synthetic biology, virology, and nanotechnology. We welcome applications from researchers at universities, research institutes, startups, and established companies.
The first stage of the application process is a concept paper, with a submission deadline of 27 October 2025.
Meet the programme team
Our Programme Directors are supported by a core team that provides a blend of operational coordination and highly specialised technical expertise.
Nathan Wolfe
Programme Director
Nathan is a renowned virologist, epidemiologist, and entrepreneur. Most recently, he was a Visiting Scholar in Stanford's Bioengineering Department, having previously founded initiatives to quantify epidemic and pandemic risk, and coordinate scientists globally to spot emerging pathogens. He served on DARPA’s Defense Sciences Research Council.
Sarath Murugan
Programme Specialist
Sarath joined ARIA from a business operations and strategy role at a defence engineering scale-up, where his team developed a product that brought the capabilities of gen-AI to the disconnected-edge. He holds an LLB from Bristol, and has experience in project and product-facing roles. Sarath supports ARIA as an operating partner from Pace.
Ryan Olf
External Technical Advisor
Ryan is a Caltech and Berkeley-trained physicist with a varied and voracious technical appetite. His previous adventures include creating the world’s lowest-entropy quantum gas, designing nanotube-based GLP-1 implants, automating gene therapy manufacturing, and developing software for his family’s village shop.
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