Mandashi is pleased to announce its latest investment in GitLife Biotech, a pioneering spinout from the University of Newcastle that is converging the realms of biotech and software to address a challenging and longstanding problem in the synthetic biology space - protecting the highly valuable IP of biological assets like genetically modified cell lines, plants, or microorganisms.
GitLife Biotech’s innovative technology allows users to discreetly embed proof of ownership into a biological asset by adding "uniquely barcoded" DNA sequences into its genome, resulting in a fully traceable asset, containing a verifiable digital record.
Gitlife Bio have also launched a secure, digital repository, called CellRepo, allowing for version control of a biological asset. This is like a digital ledger, where each modification made to an organism can be uniquely barcoded, logged, and archived, ensuring that every revision can be reliably tracked and retrieved.
On the investment, Dr Danny Evans, Investment Manager at Mandashi, said “At Mandashi, we continually seek to support and nurture innovations that shape the future. GitLife Biotech presents a game-changing solution in a sector where traceability and security are crucial. With the launch of CellRepo.com and the biosecurity toolkit, we're witnessing a revolution in synthetic biology, and Mandashi is proud to be part of this journey."
George Neville Jones, CFO of GitLife Biotech, shared his enthusiasm, "This pre-seed funding for GitLife Biotech Ltd allows us to launch CellRepo.com, the version control system for synthetic biology. Both CellRepo.com and our biosecurity toolkit, which proves ownership without disclosing the sequence, are now live."
"The complexity of the engineering biology undertaken by scientists continues to increase. The potential for positive impact remains huge, which drives significant commercial value. Our platform provides proof of ownership and a record of provenance. This facilitates development, collaboration and commercial deployment. Equally, this is essential to allow novel biological assets to be integrated safely and securely into the food and industrial supply chains."
"We are very excited to be working with Sheila, Andy and Danny, of Mandashi as both investors and advisors to GitLife Biotech. Their significant experience in scaling SAAS businesses in the technology space will be of great value as we launch CellRepo.com and our biosecurity toolkit."