{"id":615880,"date":"2026-09-14T15:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T15:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/615880\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T15:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T15:10:10","slug":"uk-funding-agency-to-spend-66-million-on-new-methods-for-engineering-the-mitochondrial-genome-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/615880\/","title":{"rendered":"UK funding agency to spend \u00a366 million on new methods for engineering the mitochondrial genome | News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The UK\u2019s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria), which funds high-risk, high-reward science, is spending \u00a366 million on 19 research projects that will aim to make the mitochondrial genome programmable.<\/p>\n<p>Mitochondria are often referred to as the biological cell\u2019s powerhouse due to their key role in supplying the energy needed for cells to function. But while advances in genetic engineering over recent decades have enabled scientists to read, write and edit DNA in the cell nucleus, the same capabilities have remained elusive for mitochondrial DNA.<\/p>\n<p>Aria\u2019s new <a title=\"Precision Mitochondria | Aria\" href=\"https:\/\/aria.org.uk\/opportunity-spaces\/programmable-physiology\/precision-mitochondria\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Precision Mitochondria programme<\/a> will support projects located across the UK, Germany, the US, and Australia. Its ultimate goal is to demonstrate the persistent and reproducible expression of a novel gene from engineered mitochondrial DNA in an in vivo system. The organisation says that such an achievement would \u2018turn mitochondria from passive targets into programmable engines of cellular function\u2019. This could enable new therapies that re-programme mitochondria to fight disease and potentially enhance cellular capabilities.<\/p>\n<p>Ryan Olf, Aria\u2019s director for the new programme, explained that mitochondria help govern metabolism, immune signalling and cell death and are therefore the basis of many diseases related to ageing, including type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer\u2019s and cancer. \u2018Yet they retain their own DNA, the last in our cells that we cannot robustly engineer,\u2019 he said. \u2018So we still cannot tell which changes in mitochondrial DNA drive disease, which merely follow it, and which could be remedied.\u2019 Having such knowledge could pave the way to make mitochondria programmable, and eventually harness machinery already embedded in the cell to detect and counter disease from within, Olf added.<\/p>\n<p>Mitochondrial geneticist Hansong Ma from the University of Birmingham, who is leading one of the projects funded by the new programme, <a title=\"New ARIA funding to build toolkit for engineering the mitochondrial genome | University of Birmingham\" href=\"https:\/\/www.birmingham.ac.uk\/news\/2026\/new-aria-funding-to-build-toolkit-for-engineering-the-mitochondrial-genome\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">described<\/a> it as \u2018an exciting opportunity\u2019 that goes far beyond disease. \u2018It is about developing a new technology to control one of the fundamental components of life\u2019, she stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK\u2019s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria), which funds high-risk, high-reward science, is spending \u00a366 million on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[163,85,46],"class_list":["post-615880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}