Engineering enzymes for a sustainable bioeconomy

Demand for responsibly manufactured bio-based ingredients is rising across industries including cosmetics, fragrances, food and pharmaceuticals. At the same time, supply chains often struggle to deliver these materials at the scale, reliability and cost required by global manufacturers. Pathfinder Bio aims to address this challenge by creating a UK and European source of high-performance, sustainably produced ingredients.

Using advanced biocatalysis, the company develops enzymes capable of producing natural ingredients with consistent purity, strong yields and scalable manufacturing processes. These drop-in bio-based alternatives allow brands to meet consumer expectations for sustainable products while maintaining performance and supply security.

From academic research to industrial opportunity

The technology behind Pathfinder Bio was developed by Professor John Heap and Dr Lara Sellés Vidal, originally while based at Imperial College London. Professor Heap’s experience working in industry highlighted a significant limitation in conventional enzyme development. Traditional approaches rely heavily on assay-based screening, which limits the number of enzyme variants that can be tested and slows progress.

To overcome this barrier, Heap developed a method that links enzyme performance directly to bacterial cell survival. By coupling enzyme activity to microbial growth, the system enables millions of variants to be evaluated simultaneously. This growth-coupled selection system significantly accelerates enzyme discovery and optimisation, allowing industrial-grade biocatalysts to be developed far faster than traditional approaches.

The breakthrough created an opportunity to unlock new bio-based manufacturing routes across several sectors of the global bioeconomy.

Unlocking the potential of biocatalysis

Many promising sustainable manufacturing processes fail because suitable enzymes cannot be discovered or optimised quickly enough. Without the right catalysts, bio-based alternatives to petrochemical manufacturing remain difficult to scale. Pathfinder Bio’s platform tackles this challenge by generating large datasets from growth-coupled selection experiments, enabling rapid identification and optimisation of enzymes that can operate under industrial conditions.

This capability allows companies to design robust biocatalytic processes more efficiently and supports the transition towards cleaner manufacturing systems. The company’s initial focus is the cosmetics and fragrance ingredients market, a global sector valued at more than $21 billion, where brands are actively seeking natural and sustainably sourced ingredients.

ICURe: Turning research into a company

While the underlying science showed strong promise, translating a broadly applicable enzyme platform into a commercial business required careful market validation. The technology had potential applications across pharmaceuticals, food, personal care and speciality chemicals, and identifying the right entry point required direct engagement with industry.

CEO and co-founder Dr Gareth Little and the Pathfinder Bio team joined the Innovate UK ICURe programme, progressing through Discover, Explore and Exploit between February and September 2022. During this period the team conducted extensive customer discovery and engaged with potential industry partners to understand real market needs. These conversations helped identify cosmetics and fragrance ingredients as a strong initial market opportunity and refined the company’s commercial strategy.

ICURe also provided mentoring and structured training that helped the team move beyond academic research and focus on building a scalable business. Pathfinder Bio officially spun out as a company in December 2022.

Early growth and commercial momentum

Following incorporation, Pathfinder Bio secured £300,000 of follow-on grant funding in August 2023, enabling further development of its enzyme discovery platform and early commercial activity. The company raised private pre-seed investment in March 2025, providing capital to continue research and development while beginning to scale production capabilities.

Since then, Pathfinder Bio has built strong relationships with potential industry customers, validating demand for high-performance enzymes capable of enabling sustainable ingredient manufacturing. The company has also strengthened its commercial capabilities through the addition of experienced consultants to support business development and strategy, helping the team accelerate industry partnerships and market engagement.

Scaling sustainable biomanufacturing

Pathfinder Bio is now focused on scaling its platform and product portfolio. The company plans to move from gram-scale development to pilot-scale manufacturing, establishing commercial supply routes for cosmetics and fragrance ingredients. Achieving this will require continued research and development, regulatory validation and close collaboration with industry partners.

Over time the company intends to expand its enzyme discovery platform to support additional applications across the wider bioeconomy, enabling sustainable manufacturing solutions across multiple industries.

Enabling the next generation of biotech innovation

Pathfinder Bio’s journey demonstrates how structured market exploration and early-stage support can transform academic research into real-world innovation. Through the ICURe programme the team validated its technology, identified its first commercial market and built the foundations for a high-growth spin-out.

The programme equipped me with the skills, confidence and structure to turn deep technical experience into an entrepreneurial venture. It gave me the tools to connect with industry and develop as a scientist-entrepreneur to make a tangible impact in the world

– Dr Gareth Little, CEO and co-founder of Pathfinder Bio

As Pathfinder Bio continues to develop its platform, the company represents a strong example of how UK research can enable sustainable manufacturing and support the growing bioeconomy.