Cytotrait, a biotechnology spinout from The University of Manchester focused on developing novel traits for food and agriculture, has secured £3 million in seed funding to advance its crop engineering platform and expand research across major crop species.
The investment round was led by Northern Gritstone, with additional backing from the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S), managed by Future Planet Capital, and the Northern Universities Ventures Fund, managed by Parkwalk in collaboration with Northern Gritstone. The funding will support Cytotrait as it builds on early data from its proprietary Mutant Organelle Selection System (MOSS) technology and launches new development programs aimed at improving crop performance.
Cytotrait’s MOSS platform is designed to address longstanding challenges in crop engineering by enabling rapid homoplasmy and delivering genes or gene edits directly into plant organelles such as chloroplasts and mitochondria. By ensuring genetic modifications are present across every organelle within plant cells, the technology enables more precise engineering of crop traits while potentially reducing phytotoxicity and simplifying regulatory pathways.
The approach is intended to allow researchers to engineer crop characteristics with localized and high-level expression, while also enabling easier backcrossing, trait stacking, and improved containment. These capabilities could help accelerate the development of crops with enhanced productivity, resilience, and environmental performance.
With the new capital, Cytotrait plans to expand research programs targeting wheat, maize, potato, and canola across European and North American markets. The company aims to explore applications that include increased crop yield and resilience, the introduction of valuable new food traits, and agricultural practices that promote sustainability through improved carbon sequestration.
Since its formation, Cytotrait has worked closely with the University of Manchester Innovation Factory, the university’s technology transfer office, which helped guide the company through intellectual property strategy, company formation, business planning, and investor readiness. The Innovation Factory also previously supported the company in accessing pre-seed funding from the university and in recruiting a commercial lead through the Northern Triangle Talent Initiative.
Prior to the seed round, Cytotrait received £498,000 in funding from the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) to develop MOSS technology for reliable hybrid seed production in wheat, one of the world’s most widely grown crops. The company also recently graduated from NG Studios, Northern Gritstone’s venture building program for deeptech spinouts.
KEY QUOTES
“Food security and sustainability are two of our most pressing global challenges, and issues that we must be prepared to face today to ensure we are ready to meet the needs of tomorrow. We developed MOSS with those challenges in mind – a unique crop engineering solution capable of streamlining regulatory pathways and generating crops with new, enhanced, and more carbon-conscious traits. Thank you to our investors, whose support reaffirms our belief in the potential of MOSS to bring about a new frontier in crop technology.”
Dr Junwei Ji, Co-Founder & Executive Director, Cytotrait
“It has been a privilege to support the Cytotrait team on their commercialisation journey, from early-stage research through to this successful seed funding round. This milestone reflects the strength of the science, the ambition of the founders and the collaborative efforts of colleagues, the investors and partners who have helped bring the company to this point. We are proud to have worked alongside the team and look forward to continuing to support Cytotrait as they pursue their commercial ambitions.”
Dr Elliott Jennings, Head Of Investment & Licensing (Life Sciences), University Of Manchester Innovation Factory
“Cytotrait is a prime example of the world-class innovation from the North of England’s universities and the ambitious founders and teams we see on our venture building program, NG Studios. Northern Gritstone is very pleased to be working with Dr Ji and the team and look forward to positive results from this first tranche of new development programmes.”
Duncan Johnson, Chief Executive Officer, Northern Gritstone
“MOSS is truly a breakthrough in the field of crop technology, allowing us to precisely engineer characteristics that can not only enhance yield and resilience, but also help to drive a more sustainable future for modern agriculture. We’re extremely proud of everything our team has already accomplished, and thankful to our investors, whose support will enable us to expand our pipeline and explore the applications of MOSS in some of the world’s major crop types.”
Dr Tim Brears, Executive Chair, Cytotrait
“UKI2S invests in companies developing novel engineering biology solutions to tackle large, global challenges. We are delighted to welcome Cytotrait to our growing agritech portfolio, recognising the strength of its platform technology, which has the potential to unlock high-value trait expression at levels significantly beyond what is achievable through conventional nuclear genome engineering.”
Hassan Mahmudul, Investment Manager, UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund
