Professor Jason Chin joins EIT to lead its new Generative Biology Institute

EIT is delighted to be joined by Professor Jason Chin, who will become the Founding Director of its Generative Biology Institute (GBI). A pioneer in generative biology, Jason will lead the new institute as it builds a community of more than 300 world–class researchers. GBI will have significant and sustained funding to support the unique scale and ambition of its groundbreaking vision for engineering biology, and to tackle some of society’s greatest challenges over the coming decade.‍

Building a global leading institute for engineering biology

GBI will tackle the key challenges in making biology engineerable, and thereby unlock the unrivalled power of biology for the benefit of humanity. The ability to truly engineer biology will open many new opportunities for impact across EIT’s humane endeavours. In medical science and healthcare, for example, it will enable the development of new therapeutic molecules and cells to treat disease. In food security and sustainable agriculture, it will enable the engineering of crops to fix nitrogen, make them more nutritious, robust to climate, and resistant to disease. In climate change and clean energy, it will make it possible to engineer biology to fix greenhouse gases and generate fuels.

A new model for impact

GBI’s researchers will focus on foundational research: solving critical challenges in making biology engineerable and applying the solutions to EIT’s humane endeavours in an ethical, sustainable and socially responsible manner. In addition, translational teams will work to identify opportunities for commercialisation of GBI’s advances to deliver societal benefit. This will include working with EIT’s scientific programs, which will provide capital and support to develop solutions with commercial sustainability and global scale, while engaging policymakers and other key stakeholders to ensure responsible adoption of these technologies and alignment with societal needs.

The vision

"Biology naturally performs a spectacular array of functions. If leveraged correctly, it holds the key to solving some of our most enduring challenges.

‍However, we don’t yet have the ability reliably engineer biology. To unlock its full potential, there are two essential challenges to overcome. We must be able to write in the natural language of biology, and we must understand which DNA sequences will generate biological systems that perform the desired functions.

At GBI, we will develop the technologies to overcome these challenges and apply our advances to address EIT’s humane endeavours. Our vision is to lay the foundations for engineering biology, and unlock its potential for good."  

About Jason

Jason is currently a Programme Leader at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC-LMB), where he is also the Head of the Centre for Chemical & Synthetic Biology and joint Head of the Division of Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry. Under Jason’s leadership, his lab at MRC-LMB has delivered several breakthroughs in the field of engineering biology, including synthesis of the entire genome of the bacterium E.coli: the first synthetic strain created for industrial use.

This work has also led to the creation of Constructive Bio, a company that aims to deliver biomanufacturing at scale by programming the sequence, composition and chemistry of proteins, and new biopolymers.

Read more about Prof Jason Chin here.

Building the GBI team

The Generative Biology Institute will commence operations in 2025. The team will work from a purpose-made facility in the Oxford Science Park, currently under construction. Once complete, this state-of-the-art facility will include more than 40,000 m² of research laboratory and office space. At capacity, the GBI is expected to host 30 group leaders and more than 300 research staff, supported by cutting-edge scientific core facilities.

Located adjacent to the EIT Oxford Campus, GBI researchers will work closely with EIT programs, platforms and cross-cutting capabilities, including its AI platform. The creation of GBI will also provide new opportunities for EIT’s recently announced strategic alliance with the University of Oxford and will further EIT’s partnerships in the Oxford biotech and technology communities.

GBI will be hiring a large faculty of world-leading researchers, across areas including: synthetic biology, computational biology and AI, microbial, plant and human cell biology, genomics, robotics and automation, and nucleic acids chemistry. If you would like to find out more about upcoming vacancies, please contact our HR team uktalent@eit.org.