Northern Gritstone leads £3 million Seed round into Cytotrait
Northern Gritstone leads £3 million Seed round into University of Manchester biotechnology spinout
The round was led by Northern Gritstone with participation from UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S, managed by Future Planet Capital), and Northern Universities Ventures Fund, managed by Parkwalk in collaboration with Northern Gritstone. Cytotrait, a recent graduate of the NG Studios deeptech program. is a biotechnology spinout company from the University of Manchester developing novel traits for food and agriculture.
The seed funding will enable the Company to build on strong early data from its proprietary Mutant Organelle Selection System (MOSS) technology, initiating new development programs to explore enhanced traits in major crop species. The technology is uniquely designed to tackle longstanding hurdles in crop engineering and address the growing challenge of global food security and sustainable agricultural practices. In contrast to other methods, MOSS rapidly achieves homoplasmy, delivering genes and gene edits into chloroplasts and mitochondria to ensure the desired genetic changes are engineered across every organelle in a cell or plant. This approach enables crop characteristics to be engineered with both localised and high-level expression, reduced transgene phytotoxicity, easier backcrossing and trait stacking, efficient containment and an easier regulatory route.
Building on foundational data for developing novel crop traits, Cytotrait will use its seed funding for new research targeting wheat, maize, potato and canola in European and North American markets. The programmes will utilise MOSS to explore potential applications in these crops, including enhancements in yield and resilience, the potential to introduce valuable new food traits, and the ability to drive more sustainable practices through improved carbon sequestration.
Cytotrait was previously awarded £498k funding from the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) to develop MOSS for reliable hybrid seed production in wheat, one of the world’s largest food crops1. The company was spun out with support from the University of Manchester Innovation Factory, the University’s technology transfer office, which works to commercialise University research.
Dr Junwei Ji, Co-Founder & Executive Director, Cytotrait, commented: “Food security and sustainability are two of our most pressing global challenges, and issues that we must be prepared to face today to ensure we are ready to meet the needs of tomorrow. We developed MOSS with those challenges in mind – a unique crop engineering solution capable of streamlining regulatory pathways and generating crops with new, enhanced, and more carbon-conscious traits. Thank you to our investors, whose support reaffirms our belief in the potential of MOSS to bring about a new frontier in crop technology.”
Duncan Johnson, CEO, Northern Gritstone, said: Cytotrait is a prime example of the world-class innovation from the North of England’s universities and the ambitious founders and teams we see on our venture building program, NG Studios. Northern Gritstone is very pleased to be working with Dr Ji and the team and look forward to positive results from this first tranche of new development programmes.”
“MOSS is truly a breakthrough in the field of crop technology, allowing us to precisely engineer characteristics that can not only enhance yield and resilience, but also help to drive a more sustainable future for modern agriculture,” said Dr Tim Brears, Executive Chair. He continued: “We’re extremely proud of everything our team has already accomplished, and thankful to our investors, whose support will enable us to expand our pipeline and explore the applications of MOSS in some of the world’s major crop types.