Submitted by Penny Peck on Wed, 09/09/2026 - 15:07
Professor Michal Minczuk will lead a major international research project funded by the Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA) to develop new ways of delivering genetic material into mitochondria.
Programmable mitochondria (ProMiT): Comparing ways to deliver nucleic acids into mitochondria has been awarded £7.7 million, with funding of up to £9.35 million over five years. It is one of 19 projects within ARIA’s Precision Mitochondria programme, backed by up to £66 million and led by Programme Director Ryan Olf.
Other MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit researchers involved in ProMiT are Professor Mike Murphy and Dr Jelle van den Ameele, together with MBU Associate Member Professor Rita Horvath.
From March 2027, ProMiT will be hosted at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research (CIMR), further embedding the programme within Cambridge’s wider biomedical research environment.
The wider consortium brings together researchers from the University of Cambridge (Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology), University of Oxford, University of Bristol, ETH Zürich, University of Copenhagen, Brown University and Institut Imagine, combining expertise across mitochondrial biology, membrane transport, synthetic biology, chemistry, materials science, RNA biology and advanced imaging.
Mitochondrial DNA has remained much harder to engineer than nuclear DNA, in part because genetic material must cross two mitochondrial membranes before reaching the matrix where the genome resides. Rather than pursuing a single solution, ProMiT will develop and directly compare four contrasting approaches: phage-derived delivery systems, nanoparticles, metal–organic frameworks and RNA-import mechanisms inspired by protists.
A key component of the project will be a shared, standardised testing platform combining bioenergetics, chemical probes, cellular models, single-cell analysis and advanced imaging. This will allow different technologies to be evaluated side by side using common standards, assessing whether genetic material reaches mitochondria, functions there and preserves mitochondrial integrity. The platform is also intended to provide an underpinning capability across the wider Precision Mitochondria programme.
“We want to turn mitochondrial engineering into a more rigorous and predictable field, by testing very different approaches side by side using the same standards - so that success can be identified quickly, reproduced reliably and built upon with confidence.
It is a privilege to lead this outstanding international team, and I am particularly excited about working closely with researchers across the wider Precision Mitochondria programme.”
ProMiT will work particularly closely with complementary Precision Mitochondria projects at Bitrobius Genetics, developing platforms for DNA transport into mitochondria, and Lisa Doetsch, developing a genetically encoded system for mitochondrial RNA import.
Read more about ProMit on the ARIA website.