The Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) in partnership with the BioBased and Biodegradable Industries Association (BBIA), holds its 12th Annual Conference in Glasgow on 10 and 11 March 2026.

The conference will bring together over 400 biobased industry professionals, researchers, policymakers, and supporting organisations to hear talks, case studies, and panel sessions and to take part in networking activities and workshops.

Visit the exhibition, innovation zone, and posters zone, take part in extensive informal networking opportunities and 1-1 partnering, and join an all-welcome civic reception at Glasgow City Chambers.

Conference attendees are made up of predominantly C-suite or senior level industry representatives from both large, established companies and emerging and start-up enterprises, as well as senior academics, researchers in industry or academia, students and recent graduates, investors, and policy makers. The conference focuses on delivering tangible benefits for attendees, including cultivating strategic partnerships, facilitating new connections and collaborations, providing examples of best practice, understanding, and feeding back on, regulations, and supporting effective communication.

The theme of this year’s conference is BioSolutions for Tomorrow’s World. Fast paced sessions will explore topics ranging from bio-similars in manufacturing to food innovation and the role of biotechnology in restoring natural environments. We’ll look into key issues such as the extent to which bio-based products can replace fossil, and factors influencing the adoption of alternative proteins, while fireside chats and panel sessions will delve into issues in depth. Sponsored workshops on Day 2 will give hosts and delegates an opportunity to discuss issues in-depth in an interactive and outcome-driven setting, and informal networking and 1-1 partnering throughout will give delegates opportunities to meet key contacts and build new connections.

Revolutionising gluten-safe food production

Background

Prozymi Biolabs Ltd, an Edinburgh based biotechnology start-up was founded with a mission to revolutionise gluten-free food production. With a significant portion of the UK population affected by gluten-related disorders, including coeliac disease, gluten sensitivity and IBS, there is an increased demand for gluten-free products. However, existing gluten-free options often lack the taste, texture, and nutritional value of traditional gluten-containing foods, posing challenges for consumers.

Scientists from Prozymi Biolabs are testing a new enzyme technology that degrades gliadin, the protein that causes food sensitivities.

The Journey

Since its inception in early 2021 Prozymi Biolabs has experienced rapid growth and made a significant impact in the biotech world – more specifically in gluten-safe technology.

Co-founders Ioannis Stasinopoulos and Andreas Andreou were awarded their PhD’s at the University of Edinburgh and came up with the idea of developing a pioneering method of making gluten-safe bread while baking sourdough bread in their spare time. Receiving seed funding through the University of Edinburgh’s Data Driven Entrepreneurship program, which supports high growth start-ups associated with the university, gave Prozymi Biolabs the kick-start required to embark on their journey revolutionising the gluten-free bread experience.

Following an introduction via the student enterprise team at Edinburgh Innovations, Louise Arnold, Business Engagement Executive at Interface, has supported the Prozymi Biolabs team since they started, helping them navigate the academic research and development landscape, making relevant connections into universities, support networks and funding.

Some of these connections and projects include:

• Queen Margaret University and the SRUC Thrive Programme in support of product development, planning, marketing, pitching, nutrition, food legislation and access to general business support information.
• The Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) Accelerator Programme, to guide and assist them on best practice, direct innovation support and peer to peer learning. They continued to collaborate with IBioIC, through the scale up of the gliadin-degrading enzymes using IBioIC’s scale up facilities at Heriot Watt University.
• Two projects with University of Aberdeen’s Applied Health Science students: one to identify the causes behind gluten disorders, the parts of gluten responsible, the key symptoms, diagnostic methods, and potential treatments used. And the second on gluten awareness, researching gluten-related topics such as gluten intolerance, celiac disease, and gluten-free diets analysing data collected to identify patterns, trends, and key insights regarding gluten-related issues.
• A collaboration with University of Stirling’s Business School students on developing marketing strategy and market and competitor analysis.
• A partnership with the Proteomics and Metabolomics Facility at the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute, funded via the Healthier Products Innovation Fund, allowed Prozymi Biolabs to use their mass spectrometry equipment to develop a robust process for sequencing and characterizing gluten-degrading enzymes. This collaboration enabled the identification and expression of candidate enzymes, with a focus on specificity and efficiency in degrading harmful gluten peptides while preserving the integrity of bread’s texture and flavour.

The Benefits

Prozymi Biolabs are creating employment opportunities, generating collaborations with university facilities and provide experiential learning opportunities for students through Interface support. The project outcomes could yield multidimensional benefits in the future as follows:

• Social: Consumers will benefit from high-quality gluten-free products at lower prices, making them affordable for low-income social classes.
• Economic: The low production cost of gluten-free products made with their technology will alleviate NHS financial burden for prescribed goods to coeliacs and help products of those higher in the supply chain, such as local wheat and barley suppliers to reach the gluten-free market.
• Environmental: Reduced reliance on imported naturally gluten-free materials, used for existing gluten-free products, will minimise transport fuels and align with government priorities for carbon footprint reduction.
• Political: Support the government’s strategy for locally sourced wheat and barley grains to increase nation’s self-sufficiency and resilience.

Benefits to Prozymi Biolabs

• Collaboration has fostered an innovative environment, leading to the development of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) through identification and characterisation of the gluten degrading enzymes. This has also enhanced overall productivity within the company.
• By pooling resources and expertise across the university networks, has led to increased R&D efficiency, cost savings and faster project completion. The collaborations have improved Prozymi Biolab’s market position enabling the development of cutting-edge solutions, while increasing their market valuation.
• Potential applications in brewing, animal feed, and pharmaceutical industries.
• This innovation has also led to the selection of Prozymi Biolabs for IBioIC’s Biotech Innovators incubator, University of Edinburgh’s Venture Builder Incubator, Barclay’s AgriTech Bridge program and Carbon 13 Venture Launchpad program opening avenues for further academic and research collaborations.
• Awarded Innovation of the Year at the Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards 2024.

Benefits to Academics

• The partnership has provided the University of Edinburgh’s Proteomics & Metabolomics Facility with an opportunity to apply analytical chemistry tools in the food sector.
• Collaborating with the organisation has opened additional funding opportunities for the universities, allowing for expanded research capabilities.
• The collaboration has offered students the chance to engage directly with industry, enriching their learning experience and professional development.

Next Steps

Prozymi Biolabs’ innovative approach to gluten-free bread production has the potential of transforming the food industry, offering consumers high-quality gluten-free products with improved taste, texture, and nutritional value. Through collaboration with academic partners and participation in incubator programs, the company is poised to further advance its research and development efforts, paving the way for a new era of gluten-free innovation.

Next steps for Prozymi Biolabs include:

• Continued collaboration with the University of Edinburgh’s Proteomics and Metabolomics facility and Edinburgh Genome Foundry has resulted in an established pipeline for screening and expression of gluten-degrading enzymes which could be further developed to generate new promising candidates in the future for the needs of beer, pharma, or animal feed industries.
• New academic collaborations with Queen Margaret University Scottish Centre for Food Development and Innovation, to provide equipment and expertise for small-scale proof-of-concept gluten-free bread production; the School of Physics of the University of Edinburgh for potential collaboration for testing the rheological properties of initial gluten-free bread batches.

The Bioeconomy Cluster Builder and the Scotland Food and Drink Partnership Net Zero Programme are delighted to host this webinar dedicated to exchanging knowledge and building connections between food industry and industrial biotechnology (IB) stakeholders.

Biotechnology uses the metabolic processes of plants, fungi, algae and micro-organisms to create valuable products. Traditional examples include baking, brewing and cheese production. However, recent developments have seen innovative applications of IB across the food value chain.

These applications have resulted in improved agricultural yields, alternative proteins such as mycoprotein and cultured meat, sustainable ingredients like flavourings and colourants, and the creation of high value products from waste and co-products. In this way, IB has helped increase efficiency and environmental performance, making significant contributions to the decarbonisation of food production and processing.

Join the webinar on Tuesday 23rd January to learn how biotechnology is transforming food systems and to discover how the Bioeconomy Cluster Builder can help you connect with the right people and resources to support your ambitions in this area.

The Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) is running a dedicated feasibility funding call to complement this event. Grants of up to £10k are available to support industry led collaborations with Scottish academics.

This joint event organised by both the Biochemical Engineering Special Interest Group (BESIG) within the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) and the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre’s (IBioIC) Scottish Fermentation network (SFN), is being hosted at The University of Strathclyde’s Technology Innovation Centre (TIC) in Glasgow.

The majority of organic chemicals, nutraceuticals, fuels and polymers are still derived from fossil-based feedstocks, predominantly oil and gas. Advances in molecular biology techniques and an increased awareness and understanding of many emerging microorganisms, engineering biology methods and bio-based feedstocks, are now allowing scientists and engineers to rethink how the chemicals of the future are produced.

This one-day conference will look to bring together those with an interest in chemistry, biology, engineering and entrepreneurship, which are all the skills that will be needed to transition chemical production to bio-based methods using bio-based feedstocks. Talks will feature a range of speakers from universities and industry, covering a range of sectors looking to address this conversion. Featuring not just how they are addressing technical challenges, but also how to scale these to production, supported by several organisations that can help support with their services from cell identification to engineering and de-risking scale-up.

A collaboration with Scottish Forestry exploring opportunities to create value from Scotland’s residual forestry bioresources.

It is widely recognised that significant opportunities exist to apply biotechnology to create value from co-products arising from the Scottish forestry industry. The National Plan for Industrial Biotechnology, the Biorefining Potential for Scotland, and the Forest and Timber Technologies Industry Leadership Group Roots for Further Growth strategy all identify forestry residues as critical resources and emphasise a need to focus on their valorisation.

However, to date progress across Scotland has been limited. This webinar explores activity overseas through contributions from RISE Processum in Sweden. UK start-up Sonichem will discuss the development of their ultrasonic biorefinery technology and share their scale-up ambitions. Following this the Centre for Wood Science and Technology at Edinburgh Napier University will share insights around high value compounds that can be derived from forestry residues. Finally, Scottish Forestry outline their plans to make the most of local bio-resources.

Agenda:

• Introduction to the Bioeconomy Cluster Builder
• Fredrik Östlund – Innovation and Process Manager, RISE Processum, Sweden
• Miranda Lindsay-Fynn – Commercial Director, Sonichem
• Steve Adams – Fellow, Centre for Wood Science & Technology, Napier University
• William Clark, Forestry Transport and Innovation Advisor, Scottish Forestry
• Q&A
• Understanding how the Bioeconomy Cluster Builder can help
• Next steps

Who should attend:

• Forestry producers and wood processors
• Biotechnology solution providers
• Academics
• Funders and investors

For further information please contact Kim Cameron at IBioIC – kim.cameron@ibioic.com

The Bioeconomy Cluster Builder (BCB) is a collaboration between the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) and Innovate UK KTN.