University of Birmingham researchers among 19 funded R&D Creator teams backed by up to £66m on the Precision Mitochondria programme
Researchers at the University of Birmingham are joining an ambitious research programme funded by ARIA to build a new capability to engineer mitochondria and enable scientists to study how these tiny cellular structures affect health and disease.
Mitochondria are best known as the ‘powerhouses’ of our cells, where they convert the energy needed to keep cells functioning. But they also contain their own genetic material, known as mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which plays an essential role in mitochondrial function. Changes, otherwise known as mutations, in mtDNA can cause serious and debilitating mitochondrial diseases, many of which currently have no curative treatments.
ARIA's Precision Mitochondria programme, backed by up to £66m for up to five years, aims to transform mitochondria from biological structures that are difficult to engineer into programmable genetic systems whose DNA can be precisely changed, maintained, tuned and transferred. This technological capability would unlock new ways for researchers to understand how mitochondrial DNA affects health and disease and could open new opportunities across fundamental research, disease treatment, biotechnology and agriculture.
The potential goes far beyond disease — it is about developing a new technology to control one of the fundamental components of life.
The Precision Mitochondria programme will see 19 funded teams (R&D Creators) take on a problem that has remained unsolved for roughly fifty years: building a reliable, shared toolkit for engineering the mitochondrial genome. As part of the programme, Professor Ma will lead a project team that sees complementary expertise across nanotechnology, vesicle engineering, and mitochondrial genetics.
Mitochondrial diseases are often serious and debilitating and generally lack curative treatments. Mitochondrial dysfunction is also associated with neurodegeneration, cancer, metabolic disease and ageing, but whether it is a cause, a consequence or part of a feedback loop often remains unclear — partly because researchers lack reliable toolkits to make precise, controlled changes to mitochondrial DNA and observe the effects.
Professor Hansong Ma from the University of Birmingham and a project lead on the ARIA-funded Precision Mitochondria project said: “Mitochondria do much more than produce energy and are essential to the health and function of humans, animals and plants.
“Mitochondrial dysfunction is also associated with neurodegeneration, cancer, metabolic disease and ageing, but whether it is a cause, a consequence or part of a feedback loop often remains unclear — partly because the researcher community currently lacks reliable toolkits to make precise, controlled changes to mitochondrial DNA and observe the effects.
“This programme gives us an exciting opportunity to change that, opening new ways to study biology and develop applications across medicine, agriculture and biotechnology. The potential goes far beyond disease — it is about developing a new technology to control one of the fundamental components of life.”
Genetic engineering has transformed how academics study other genomes: developing the ability to read, write, and edit bacterial and nuclear DNA almost routinely, using techniques such as CRISPR. Mitochondria have remained beyond the current capacity.
The ARIA funded Precision Mitochondria project aims to create a platform for reliably delivering new, functional genetic instructions into mitochondria, express those instructions, and stably maintain them over time. Professor Ma and colleagues will be working across several Technical Areas of the coordinated research and development effort, aligning their efforts across four approaches.
The assembled team will bring complementary expertise to tackle these approaches:
Together, the team will deliver an end-to-end platform for programmable mitochondria, being able to engineer mitochondria which could have a transformative impact across synthetic biology, fundamental research, and therapeutic development.
The University of Birmingham is also a partner in a new MRC Centre of Research Excellence in Mitochondrial Genome Therapeutics, which has received £50m to study these fatal diseases. The major collaboration sees the University of Birmingham join University of Cambridge, international univeristies and organisations including leading UK charity the Lily Foundation and industry worldwide to define how mutations in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) cause disease and translate that knowledge into therapies.
For media enquiries please contact Tim Mayo, Press Office, University of Birmingham, tel: +44 (0)7815 607 157.
ARIA is an R&D funding agency created to unlock technological breakthroughs that benefit everyone. Created by an Act of Parliament and sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, we fund teams of scientists and engineers to pursue research at the edge of what is scientifically and technologically possible.
Professor in Genetics
flyfacility,Professor Hansong Ma is a leading expert in mitochondrial genetics. Her group developed tools and systems in Drosophila to study mitochondrial DNA transmission and maintenance.
Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Nanoscience
Staff profile for Dr Hanene Ali-Boucetta, Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Nanoscience, School of Pharmacy, University of Birmingham.
