Cytotrait

Ensuring a secure and sustainable global food supply is one of the defining challenges of our time. As populations grow and climate pressures intensify, farmers must produce more food using fewer resources while reducing environmental impact. Achieving this balance requires new technologies that can enhance crop performance, improve resilience and support more sustainable agricultural practices.

That is where Cytotrait comes in.

Cytotrait is a biotechnology spinout from The University of Manchester, developing next-generation crop engineering technologies designed to unlock new traits in major food crops. Founded to address the twin challenges of global food security and sustainable agriculture, the company is pioneering new approaches to gene expression that could significantly improve yield, resilience and environmental performance in crops.

In March 2026, Cytotrait secured £3 million in seed funding, with the round led by Northern Gritstone and supported by the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S), alongside the Northern Universities Venture Fund. This investment will allow the company to expand its development programmes and accelerate the application of its breakthrough technology in key global crops.

At the heart of Cytotrait’s innovation is its proprietary Mutant Organelle Selection System (MOSS) technology.

Traditional crop engineering methods typically target genes within the nuclear genome of plants. However, these approaches often face limitations including inconsistent expression, complex regulatory pathways and unintended side effects within plant cells.

Cytotrait’s MOSS technology takes a fundamentally different approach. It enables genes and gene edits to be delivered directly into chloroplasts and mitochondria, the energy-producing organelles inside plant cells. By rapidly achieving homoplasmy, the technology ensures that engineered genetic changes are present across every organelle in a plant cell.

This enables high-level, localised gene expression and opens the door to a range of advantages, including reduced transgene phytotoxicity, easier trait stacking and more efficient containment. The result is a powerful new platform capable of delivering advanced crop traits more reliably and with potentially simpler regulatory pathways.

Using MOSS, Cytotrait is exploring new development programmes across major crop species including wheat, maize, potato and canola, targeting improvements in yield, resilience and sustainability. The platform also offers potential to introduce new food traits and contribute to climate-positive agriculture through enhanced carbon sequestration.

£3 million

Seed funding secured

£498k

ARIA funding previously awarded to develop MOSS

4 major crop targets

Wheat, maize, potato and canola

This funding will enable Cytotrait to expand its research programmes and advance the commercial development of its platform technology across global agricultural markets.

Dr Junwei Ji, Co-Founder & Executive Director, Cytotrait

“Food security and sustainability are two of our most pressing global challenges. We developed MOSS with those challenges in mind – a unique crop engineering solution capable of generating crops with new, enhanced and more carbon-conscious traits.”

Hassan Mahmudul, Investment Manager, UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund

“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.”

UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S), managed by Future Planet Capital, is proud to support Cytotrait as it brings a breakthrough engineering biology platform to the global agriculture sector.

By investing in early-stage companies emerging from the UK’s research base, UKI2S helps translate high-potential scientific discoveries into commercially viable technologies with real-world impact. Cytotrait exemplifies this mission – applying advanced genetic engineering to address global challenges around food security, crop resilience and sustainable farming.

Through this investment, UKI2S is helping accelerate the development of Cytotrait’s MOSS platform and supporting the company as it expands its research programmes across key crop species.

Agriculture must evolve to meet the demands of a changing world. From improving crop resilience to reducing environmental impact, the future of food production will depend on innovative technologies capable of transforming how crops are engineered and grown.

Cytotrait’s MOSS technology represents an important step forward in crop biotechnology. By enabling precise, high-level gene expression within plant organelles, the platform offers new opportunities to enhance crop performance and sustainability simultaneously.

With support from UKI2S and its investment partners, Cytotrait is advancing a new frontier in agricultural science – one that could help deliver the resilient, productive and sustainable food systems the world urgently needs.

The Science

UKI2S Impact

£3 million

£498k

4 major crop targets

Dr Junwei Ji, Co-Founder & Executive Director, Cytotrait

Hassan Mahmudul, Investment Manager, UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund

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