Beneficial Bio

Beneficial Bio is a non-profit company founded in 2019 by Dr Jenny Molloy, the company’s Executive Director, responding to the lack of resources available in labs around the world. The company is a spin-out from OpenPlant SBRC and works towards the research centre’s goal to support global innovation through open tools and technologies.

Focusing on Africa and Latin America, Beneficial Bio looks to establish local centres that can provide the reagents and services required to support global research. In 2020, Beneficial Bio partnered with Mboalab in Yaoundé, Cameroon, in a pilot project to establish an enzyme manufacturing centre to generate the products needed by local laboratories. The enzymes are generated quickly and affordably, and production processes are designed to have minimal environmental impact. The Mboalab Team have shared protocols and experiences with counterparts in Indonesia, Kenya and South Africa.

Beneficial Bio collaborates closely with the Open Bioeconomy Lab, which is also founded and directed by Dr Jenny Molloy and is partnered with OpenPlant. The Open Bioeconomy Lab has worked on the Open Enzyme Collection of essential molecular biology enzymes optimised for production from Escherichia coli bacteria. This resource enables researchers to manufacture the enzymes needed for their research within their own laboratory. Beneficial Bio has trained over 100 African researchers in molecular techniques and reagent production, building research capacity in the region. 

Protocols for products developed by Beneficial Bio, including Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) reagents and gel electrophoresis starter kits, are openly shared on protocols.io. Bacterial bioreactor and programmable incubator kits are also set to be made available in the future. Beneficial Bio manages an online community for over ten biotechnology companies from low- and middle-income countries and is currently building on their experience and relationships to run further pilot experiments on how to scale a fast and affordable reagent distribution network.   

BBSRC DTP students from the Earlham Institute, as well as the University of Cambridge and Imperial College, have supported the company by undertaking market research, policy landscapes and impact strategy development. The students investigated the demand for establishing further local African or Latin American manufacturing centres and potential partnerships are currently being explored.