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.

On Wednesday, 2nd October 2024, Heriot-Watt University is staging the Health Ageing Showcase an afternoon dedicated to research that promotes health and wellbeing as we age.

The Healthy Ageing Showcase offers an opportunity to hear from the people leading and participating in a range of research projects. These include developing and trialling new and innovative technologies that support and enhance healthy lifestyles, to the ways our homes and urban environments can be designed to encourage opportunities for healthy ageing, to robotic and assistive devices enabling people with different needs to live independently for longer.

The event will be opened by Professor Linda Bauld (Chief Social Policy Advisor to the Scottish Government), followed by researchers representing the breadth and depth of activities in healthy ageing at Heriot-Watt. The event will also include a special session led by Katherine Crawford (Chief Executive Officer of Age Scotland) celebrating the involvement of people in shaping research.

Event Schedule: Main Programme Commences: 14:00 in the James Watt Auditorium

During the event, there will be an extended break to allow participants to engage with interactive demonstrations and stands. These will cover research from Heriot-Watt as well as opportunities to meet with our community and charity partners. Refreshments will be provided during the break.

The event is being hosted by Heriot-Watt’s Health and Care Technologies Global Research Institute. The institute’s goal is to deliver innovative, sustainable, and user-inspired solutions through a co-creative approach. To learn more about Health and Care Technologies at Heriot-Watt, visit https://www.hw.ac.uk/uk/research/health-and-care-technology.htm.

Join Heriot-Watt University and Interface on 9th October for this Industry-Collaborative Research Breakfast.

With connections into all Scotland’s universities, colleges and research institutes, Interface is based regionally to support businesses by building collaborations with academia.

Louise Arnold and Howell Davies of Interface will share how the Interface team works with Scotland’s universities, colleges and research institutes to encourage and support academics to undertake knowledge exchange activities with businesses.

Interface can help you navigate the business landscape, find business connections and enable access to industry and sector groups. In addition, the team manage funding calls on behalf of Scottish Funding Council, Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Government and can identify funding in support of new and sustained academic and business innovation collaborations.

If you are seeking to progress your research by applying it to important social, commercial, and environmental challenges, looking for industry partners for collaborative R&D or seeking insights about industry needs and challenges, need support in finding opportunities to engage your students or help identify collaborative funding programmes Interface can support you.

A CONFERENCE FOR BUSINESS LEADERS FROM ALL SECTORS

Scotland’s first Industry Leadership (ILG) Symposium will take place on Wednesday 25th September 2024 at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC).

The day long programme designed by the ILG Chairs working group includes a combination of presentations and ILG videos that will provide the audience with insights into the priorities and focus for Scotland’s key business sectors.

The Symposium agenda includes high-profile keynote speakers, thought provoking presentations and four themed panel discussions. These panel sessions will explore the latest trends, challenges and opportunities, offering you actionable insights to drive your business and sectors forward plus a session with ministers moderated by political commentator Brian Taylor “Are we delivering for Scotland?”

With three Scottish Government Ministers and twenty-five Business Leaders taking part, plus video contributions from fourteen of Scotland’s key business sectors, delegates attending will have the opportunity to gain valuable insights into the priorities of each sector and make new connections.

The sectors being featured are:
Life Sciences, Financial Services, Aerospace & Defence, Construction, Food & Drink,
Chemical Science, Forestry, Space, Energy, Employee Ownership, Retail, Textiles,
Tourism & Hospitality

Open to all, this conference presents an excellent opportunity to be involved in a ‘strategic think tank’ for industry and to network with business leaders from a variety of sectors, including government.

The overarching core purpose of the symposium is to:

• Enhance knowledge: exchange information with fellow ILG sectors.
• Showcase best practice/innovative thinking: sharing knowledge across sectors.
• Collaborate: create a network across the ILG sectors.
• Identify clear actions: what can the industry do for itself and working collectively, towards maximising and unlocking potential.

Laura Goodfellow, Associate Director, Interface will be speaking at this event.

The Challenges Group, an international enterprise development organisation that delivers enterprising solutions to global challenges celebrates their 25th anniversary with a day of meaningful collaboration and inspirational learning, designed to be outcome and action-oriented, with the aim of making real progress towards ‘enterprising solutions to global challenges’. Forge new partnerships, engage in insightful discussions, participate in hands-on workshops, and take advantage of networking opportunities, as well as celebrating their 25th anniversary.

Event Details:

Date: Thursday, September 19th, 2024
Time: 9:15 AM – 5:30 PM
Location: 18 Brunswick Street Lane, Edinburgh (My Edinburgh)
Attendees: Leaders from the Scottish social economy, venture building, and international development sectors

Panel Discussions:
• Productivity, People, and Impact in the Social Economy
• What is Venture Building?
• How Can Scotland Lead On Sustainable International Economic Development

Keynote Panel & Q&A: Enabling Edinburgh to Thrive (Speaker details to be announced)

Lunch and Networking

Breakout Workshops:
• Productivity, People, and Impact in the Social Economy
• What is Venture Building?
• How Can Scotland Lead On Sustainable International Economic Development
• Enabling Edinburgh to Thrive

Special Session:
• The Challenges Group Past, Present, and Future – Eoghan’s Big Moment

Celebration: Prosecco and Cake

For more information go to their website : Challenges Group | Enterprising solutions to global challenges (thechallengesgroup.com)

With the rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, misattributions and misrepresentations are becoming more prevalent, necessitating immediate attention to develop frameworks and solutions that uphold authenticity and trust in digital content.

Join us in the online workshop “The Value of Provenance Data in the Age of AI” for the opportunity to engage in cutting-edge discussions on how Artificial Intelligence is transforming users’ perceptions of and requirements for provenance information on media content. During the workshop, experts in media and AI provenance will give short talks on the challenges posed by AI technology for the authenticity and value of media provenance. Talks will be followed by a participatory discussion moderated on the online collaborative platform Miro. The data collected during the workshop will contribute to open-access publications and further research on the theme.

This workshop is supported by the UK Centre for the Decentralised Digital Economy (DECaDE). Our research group aims to support creator recognition and rights management in creative work, and has developed ORAgen, an online demonstrator that employs decentralizing technologies to embed attribution and licensing into digital content. In the next stage of our research, we aim to understand the challenges posed by AI concerning Ownership, Rights, and Attribution (“ORA” is the framework upon which ORAgen is based).

Data and artificial intelligence has played an increasingly prominent role in elections in recent years. 2024 is packed with democratic elections, in countries including the UK, United States and India, but what impact will data and AI have – both positive and negative?

How are rogue actors spreading disinformation and deploying plausible deepfakes to influence elections – and undermine our trust in democracy more generally?

How can democratic societies counter those threats – and more importantly, how can we build better future democracies by regulating and controlling AI and data effectively?

Hear from experts on these and a range of other issues around the complex interplay between artificial intelligence, data and democracy.

Turing Fest, the unique cross-functional tech event, is set to return to Edinburgh on July 9th-10th, 2024, for its 9th edition.

This gathering will unite founders and leaders in engineering, product development, and growth, offering opportunities to connect, learn, and collaborate on building better technology.

Leading tech experts will present their insights and experiences across three main tracks: Build (engineering & product), Grow (marketing & revenue), and Lead (people & company-building).

Attendees can learn through keynote sessions, speaker roundtables, peer-led “mind meld” sessions, and “lunch and learn” events. Networking opportunities include parties, speed networking sessions, and personalized 1-to-1 meetings organized via our matchmaking event app.

The Oscars of entrepreneurship at the University of Edinburgh: the Inspire Launch Grow Awards is happening on 6th June, 3pm – 6pm and is offering double the prize fund!

Inspire Launch Grow is about recognising innovation, creativity, and successes as well as the resilience, ambition, and accomplishments of entrepreneurs from the University of Edinburgh.

Accelerate your startup with the Inspire Launch Grow Awards with support, pitching advice and cash prizes to help take your startup to the next level. With three main categories to help kickstart your early-stage startup, nurture your social enterprise or accelerate your established startup. Enter now and be in with a chance of winning a share of the £48,000 prize fund.

This annual celebration of enterprise and a chance for Inspire Launch Grow finalists and winners to pitch and talk about their business with the wider enterprise ecosystem. This event is a celebration of University of Edinburgh students and alumni entrepreneurial success while giving attendees the opportunity to connect and form new partnerships and collaborations. Invitees include University of Edinburgh entrepreneurs, alumni, entrepreneurial organisations, business people, partners, investors and University colleagues. Drinks and catering will be provided. The after-party will take place at the Student Enterprise Hub with a BBQ and more drinks available.