Programmable Plants: Opportunity seeds
Opportunity seeds support ambitious research aligned to our opportunity spaces. We’re looking to challenge assumptions, open up new research paths, and provide steps towards new capabilities.
Can we programme plants to remove more CO2, improve food security, and deliver medicines to those in need?
From landmine-clearing plants to leveraging stochasticity in synthetic biology, we’re funding an array of projects across start ups, universities and individuals with up to £500k each to maximise the chance of breakthroughs.
Meet the Creators
Fast-Track Crop Improvement: Breaking Free from Tissue Culture
Sofia Kourmpetli, Cranfield University
Green PROTACs – Enabling Small Molecule (Re)programming and Manipulation of Plant Biology
Piers Hemsley, University of Dundee
A Universal Endosymbiont-Mediated Transient Gene Expression Platform for Plants
Ari Sadanandom, Durham University + Adriana Botes, Azotic Technologies
PlantPlug: Bioengineering Parasitic Plants into Programmable Modules
Pallavi Singh, University of Essex
CRY for Crop Development and Remote Control
Daniel Kattnig, University of Exeter
Idioblast Switch
Nicholas Holton, Hypocotyl Ltd
Programmable Plant Immunity by Design
Tolga Bozkurt, Imperial College London
Cross-Kingdom Immunity: Upgrading and Rewiring Plant Defenses
Philip Carella, John Innes Centre
FERN (Flora Electrophysiological Recording Network)
Samuel Jellard, Mycovolt Technologies
Rooting Out Danger
Richard Webster, Liverpool John Moores University
Smart Engineered Bacterial Conduits for Enhanced Crop Performance
Ciarán Kelly, Northumbria University + Emma Riley, Northumbria University
An Artificial Hybridisation System Enabled by Direct Transformation of Plant Mitochondria
Junwei Ji, Plant Organelle Technologies Ltd
Robust Plant Engineering Through Stochastic Synthetic Biology
James Locke + Chris Micklem, University of Cambridge
Direct Seed Transformation for Rapid Crop Improvement Through Rational Engineering of Agrobacterium
George Bassel, University of Warwick
Meet the programme team
Our Programme Directors are supported by a Programme Specialist (P-Spec) and Technical Specialist (T-Spec); this is the nucleus of each programme team. P-Specs co-ordinate and oversee the project management of their respective programmes, whilst T-Specs provide highly specialised and targeted technical expertise to support programmatic rigour.
Angie Burnett
Programme Director
Angie Burnett is a plant biologist and has spent the last decade focusing on understanding the power of plants to solve some of our most pressing challenges such as food insecurity, climate change and environmental degradation. Previously, Angie was a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge.
Nivashinee Krishnakumar
Programme Specialist
Nivashinee has more than five years’ experience in programme management and project delivery. She led high profile projects at a leading global technology consultancy and has worked within delivery management in a variety of industries, ranging from edtech and life sciences to the aviation aftermarket. Nivashinee supports ARIA as an Operating Partner from Pace.
Fabrizio Ticchiarelli-Marjot
Technical Specialist
As a plant scientist with a PhD from Cambridge, Fabrizio has spent ten years advancing plant biology knowledge and its translation to products. Before ARIA, he spent five years working in early-stage tech startups, consulting on lab automation at Synthace for Pharma and Crop Protection companies, then at Gardin where he led the plant science team and headed delivery of the R&D product offering.