
Impact

Scientific excellence with commercial acumen
The global bioeconomy is growing rapidly, as businesses realise the potential of biodesign and biomanufacturing. From novel materials to new medicines, data storage and living sensors, synthetic biology offers exciting new opportunities to sense, organise and process matter efficiently and cleanly – if you have the capability to turn theory into practice.
Using state-of-the-art facilities and techniques, our synthetic biology team fuses expertise in biology, chemistry and engineering to convert research-driven discovery into breakthrough products and services.
Specialisms
Experience

Background in biodesign
Our synthetic biology capability has grown organically from our long history in healthcare and life-sciences.
Recognising a new era of rational biodesign for products and processes is emerging, we created our synthetic biology division in 2015.
Antha expertise
Antha is a programming language for biology that describes and executes complex protocols, driving massive productivity gains during biodesign.
Working in partnership with Synthace, we offer an end-to-end service to help clients launch Antha in their labs, delivering significant workflow efficiency benefits.

Accelerating development
Biodesign is not fully predictive today and still requires extensive phenotypic characterisation and testing.
We designed an ultra-high throughput agar array-based system to measure ratiometric fluorescent signals from a library of transformed organisms and automatically identify the best-performing individual strain.
Interested in joining us?
Tech, tools & facilities

Synthetic biology labs
Located in our Cambridge head office, our microbiology lab enables us to genetically modify micro-organisms and characterise them. Our facilities are containment level 2 rated for handling pathogenic strains and our in-house libraries allow rapid modular DNA construct design and assembly. We are particularly interested in building organisms that are biological sensors for healthcare and industrial biotech applications.

SGI BioXP 3200
This system is the world’s first benchtop automated genomic workstation that rapidly synthesizes high-quality, double-stranded DNA fragments and clones into any vector in an overnight run. Its numerous applications include protein production, antibody library generation and cell engineering.
News & insights

Cambridge Consultants’ world-class designers recognized with two iF DESIGN AWARDS
Cambridge Consultants wins two prestigious iF DESIGN AWARDS for Aalto, an injection device for rheumatoid arthritis patients, and Alma a smart cooling case for injectable fertility drugs.

How digital twins can help confront the challenges of scaling up cultured protein
In the world of bioprocessing engineering, companies developing cultured meat and other cultured ingredients face both technical and financial challenges at each step up in scale. Here, Steve Thomas and James Westley explain how sophisticated predictive models – digital twins – that couple biology, heat transfer, mass transfer and fluid dynamics can help…
- AI & Data Analytics consultancy
- Bioinnovation
- Digital service innovation
- Fluids & thermodynamics
- Synthetic biology

Bioprocessing meets machine learning: the conversation that is driving a cell therapy breakthrough
A meeting of minds - AI meets biology. This is the conversation that is bridging the gap between bioprocessing and machine learning.
- AI & Data Analytics consultancy
- Bioinnovation
- Cell and gene therapy
- Synthetic biology

Quantum computing for pharma and life sciences – opportunities are on the horizon
What can quantum computing and quantum technology do for the pharma and life sciences industry? After reviewing the latest signs of quantum innovation in practice across Europe, Elizabeth Thomas has conferred with Cambridge Consultants’ quantum experts and now shares her insights into how organisations can start implementing an action plan…
- AI & Data Analytics consultancy
- Physical sciences
- Strategic advice
- Synthetic biology
Events

Future food-tech 2024
Across the two-day programme, thought-leaders will delve into crucial topics ranging from tackling food and nutritional insecurity, to improving health through nutritional enhancement and leveraging food as medicine solutions. Expert speakers will explore the latest thinking on the role of AI in scaling alt-protein production, and the rapid growth of automation and robotics across the value chain.

World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit 2024
Come and meet our team to understand more about how we work with agri-tech clients to embrace and scale regenerative agriculture practices, accurately measure soil carbon and nutrient levels, and unlock the environmental benefits of biologicals in a cost-effective manner.