Edinburgh. The name brings associations of castles, kilts, haggis, and (for those looking to see all of these at once) the yearly skirling of bagpipes at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. But those who look beyond the tourist-pleasing tartan will see that Edinburgh is steadily becoming a local centre for biotechnological development. This is the product of a long history of life science research, (just think of Dolly the cloned sheep) supported by the establishment of dedicated research infrastructure hubs such as the Edinburgh Bioquarter.

One of the companies comprising this wave of innovation is Ingenza, bioprocess research and development experts.

Ingenza focus on providing industrial and synthetic biology solutions to manufacturing companies, essentially the development of high-throughput microbial or eukaryotic strains for biomolecule production. Process development is a wide-ranging field, of course, and this sort of work can range from codon optimisation and protein engineering all the way up to metabolic pathway design and modification.The company was co-founded by the current manager, Dr Ian Fotherington, who originally took his PhD in Molecular Biology into a development role in the labs of NutraSweet (at the time a division of Monsanto). There he was responsible for the construction of microbial factories for the production of aspartame, the artificial sweetener still sold today as NutraSweet. He built upon this experience to further work in bioprocess development at NSC Technologies and Great Lakes Fine Chemicals – experience which stood him in good stead with the founding of Ingenza.Ingenza has a number of underlying technologies, many of which are grouped under the inABLE brand name. This comprises various protein design, evolution and synthesis techniques, alongside pathway engineering, which they use to help larger firms quickly develop production strains. Although the name itself is the bane of spellcheck software (enable or unable, take your pick) their methods have been very successful, with collaborations reported with companies such as polymer giant INVISTA. Close ties with university researchers have also led to developments such as up-scaled production of novel first-in-class antibiotic epidermicin, in collaboration with researchers from Plymouth University. The importance of this work has been shown by the recent granting of nearly GBP 680,000 from the UK Industrial Biotechnology Catalyst fund to assist in development.

The company has also received a number of awards relating to their approach to bringing younger workers into the workplace. Almost ten percent of the company consists of prior Modern Apprentices, a system employed by the Scottish government to update the apprenticeship system for modern jobs (particularly sectors such as healthcare, finance, and IT). Over 25,000 young workers begin a modern apprenticeship each year and Ingenza is considered an excellent example of this system. All of their apprentices have gone on to full employment as research assistants – a role which normally requires a full university degree. Clever utilisation of the apprenticeship system by Ingenza ensures that they will have a well-trained workforce for many years to come, while also providing a valuable entrance into biotech for those who are more interested in the hands-on side of things.