Bioactive Terpenoids for Industry (The UoY-Croda Prosperity Partnership)

Terpenoids represent nature’s most structurally diverse chemical library, with applications spanning specialised therapeutics, sustainable crop protection, and high-performance cosmetics. However, securing these molecules at an industrial scale is frequently limited by low natural abundance or the environmental cost of petrochemical synthesis.
Supported by a BBSRC Bioscience Prosperity Partnership Award, our laboratory leads a major collaboration with Croda Europe Ltd to build a sustainable, bio-based production pipeline for high-value bioactive terpenoids. This partnership functions as a seamless innovation pipeline bridging academia and industry:

• The Upstream Engine (University of York): Our group drives the upstream discovery phase, utilising our expertise in comparative genomics and biochemistry to execute Gene Discovery, Functional Characterisation, and full Pathway Reconstruction of complex terpene networks. We target a broad spectrum of high-value chemical families of interest to our industry partners, including di- and triterpenoids from the Euphorbiaceae (Spurge) family of flowering plants.
• The Downstream Scale-Up & Application (Croda): Once reconstructed, these pathways are transitioned into optimised heterologous host platforms for industrial scale-up. Croda leverages its advanced infrastructure to run high-throughput performance screening across its three foundational pillars: Crop Care (boosting sustainable food production), Health Care (improving new medicine delivery), and Customer Care (advanced, green consumer products).

By replacing petrochemical-derived processes with robust biological alternatives, this partnership actively delivers on the BioYorkshire green agenda—proving that fundamental evolutionary genetics can directly power the transition to a sustainable, bio-based chemical economy.

Publications

Czechowski, T., Li, Y., Gilday, A.D., Harvey, D., Swamidatta, S.H., Lichman, B.R., Ward, J.L., Graham, I.A. (2025). Evolution of linear triterpenoid biosynthesis within the Euphorbia plant genus. Nature Communications, 16: 5602, doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-60708-2.