MORF-Bio, the University of York spin-out developing intuitive bioinformatics tools for microbiology, has secured an Innovate UK Investor Partnerships Award, unlocking a new investment round led by Deeptech Seed Fund and matched by Helix Research and Enterprise.
The funding will accelerate the development of MORF-Bio’s online platform, bringing together microbial genome analysis, metabolic modelling and multi-omics into a single browser-based environment. The long-term vision is to create a Microbial Digital Twin that enables researchers to better understand, predict and engineer microbial behaviour.
Microbial research underpins much of the UK’s bioeconomy, supporting advances in areas ranging from drug discovery and antimicrobial resistance to sustainable manufacturing. While the amount of biological data being generated continues to grow, the tools needed to interpret it remain difficult to use, often requiring specialist bioinformatics expertise and multiple disconnected software packages.
MORF-Bio was founded to address this challenge.
Originally developed through collaborative research at the University of York, the platform was designed to help laboratory scientists interact directly with complex biological data through intuitive visualisation and analysis tools, without relying on advanced coding skills.
This latest project represents the next stage of that journey.
By linking microbial genomes directly with predictive metabolic models and dynamic multi-omics datasets, researchers will be able to explore how microorganisms respond to different conditions, test engineering strategies in silico, and generate new hypotheses before returning to the laboratory.
Dr Joyce Bennett, CEO and co-founder of MORF-Bio, said: “This funding allows us to bring together the different capabilities we’ve been developing over the last few years into one connected platform. Our goal is to build a microbial digital twin that helps researchers understand not only what they’re seeing in their data, but why it’s happening. We believe our tools have the potential to transform industrial biotechnology and accelerate drug discovery.”
The integrated platform is expected to reduce the time researchers spend processing and interpreting data, helping organisations make better use of existing datasets while accelerating research and development. It also supports broader UK ambitions around engineering biology, sustainable biomanufacturing and antimicrobial resistance by making advanced computational tools accessible to a much wider scientific community.
Pearse Coyle, Founder and Managing Partner at Deeptech Seed Fund, said: “MORF-Bio has shown a clear understanding of a problem experienced by researchers across academia and industry. The team combines deep scientific expertise with a practical approach to software development, and we’re pleased to continue supporting their growth as they build the next generation of tools for microbial research.”
The funding will also allow MORF-Bio to work more closely with researchers and industrial partners to refine the platform as new functionality is developed.
The company is now inviting collaborators interested in microbial metabolism, metabolic engineering, industrial biotechnology and engineering biology to help shape the next generation of modelling tools.
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