Poultry meat currently enjoys several comparative advantages over other meats, e.g. affordability, convenience, absence of religious guidelines restricting consumption, healthy image, limited GHG emissions, lower production costs, short rearing time and lower required investments. Rapid population growth, increased urbanisation and rising per capita income in emerging markets mean that we are going to need at least 70% more food by 2050 than what is available today. This challenge is significant, especially given that natural resource constraints, such as arable land and fresh water, will restrict the resources available to meet this increased demand. The FAO estimates that economic losses to poultry diseases are currently 10 to 20 percent of the gross value of production in developed poultry industries, and are likely to be higher in developing countries. This equates to a significant amount of resources wasted. Thus, in order to meet future demand for animal protein, such waste at the hands of disease must be reduced. This is especially pertinent given that the wide spread use of antibiotics, which has drastically increased the productivity of the poultry industry over the last 30 years, is coming to an end. This is mainly due to increasing antibiotic resistance, regulation and consumer pressure. This project aims significantly enhance the efficacy of a novel microalgae-based antimicrobial that will kill economically destructive species of bacteria found in poultry, thus enabling the sustainable replacement of certain antibiotics within the poultry industry.

Poultry meat currently enjoys several comparative advantages over other meats, e.g. affordability, convenience, absence of religious guidelines restricting consumption, healthy image, limited GHG emissions, lower production costs, short rearing time and lower required investments. Rapid population growth, increased urbanisation and rising per capita income in emerging markets mean we are going to need at least 70% more food by 2050 than what is available today. This challenge is significant, especially given that natural resource constraints, such as arable land and fresh water, will restrict the resources available to meet this increased demand. The FAO estimates that economic losses to poultry diseases are currently 10 to 20 percent of the gross value of production in developed poultry industries, and are likely to be higher in developing countries. This equates to a significant amount of recources wasted. Thus in order to meet future demand for animal protein such waste at the hands of disease must be reduced. This is especially pertinant given that the wide spread use of antibiotics, which has drastically increased the productivity of the proulty industry over the last 30 years, is coming to and end due to increasing antibiotic resistance, regulation and consumer pressure. This project aims to develop a novel protein based antimicrobial that will selectively kill economically destructive species of bacteria found in poultry, thus enabling the sustainable replacement of certain antibiotics within the poultry industry.

The UK government's support for the Life Sciences Industry Strategy (Bell Report, 2017) recognises the importance of developing new medicines to facilitate UK economic growth. Examples include new antibody therapies for the treatment of cancer, new vaccines to control the spread of infectious diseases and the emergence of cell and gene therapies to cure previously untreatable conditions such as blindness and dementia. Bioprocessing skills underpin the safe, cost-effective and environmentally friendly manufacture of this next generation of complex biological products. They facilitate the rapid translation of life science discoveries into the new medicines that will benefit the patients that need them. Recent reports, however, highlight specific skills shortages that constrain the UK's capacity to capitalise on opportunities for wealth and job creation in these areas. They emphasise the need for 'more individuals trained in advanced manufacturing' and for individuals with bioprocessing skills who can address the 'challenges with scaling-up production using biological materials'. The UCL EPSRC CDT in Bioprocess Engineering Leadership has a successful track record of equipping graduate scientists and engineers with the bioprocessing skills needed by industry. It will deliver a 'whole bioprocess' training theme based around the core fermentation and downstream processing skills underpinning medicines manufacture. The programme is designed to accelerate graduates into doctoral research and to build a multidisciplinary research cohort; this will be enhanced through a partnership with the Synthesis and Solid State Pharmaceutical Centre (SSPC) and the National Institute for Bioprocess Research and Training (NIBRT) in Ireland. Research projects will be carried out in partnership with leading UK and international companies. The continued need for the CDT is evidenced by the fact that 96% of previous graduates have progressed to relevant bioindustry careers and many are now in senior leadership positions. The next generation of molecular or cellular medicines will be increasingly complex and hence difficult to characterise. This means they will be considerably more difficult to manufacture at large scale making it harder to ensure they are not only safe but also cost-effective. This proposal will enable the CDT to train future bioindustry leaders who possess the theoretical knowledge and practical and commercial skills necessary to manufacture this next generation of complex biological medicines. This will be achieved by aligning each researcher with internationally leading research teams and developing individual training and career development programmes. In this way the CDT will contribute to the future success of the UK's bioprocess-using industries.