Cultivarium to Develop Advanced Tools for Fungi and Archaea

Genetic Tools will accelerate discovery and innovation across multiple fields, from medicine to sustainable agriculture and biomanufacturing

Cultivarium, a non-profit bioengineering firm, announced today a three-year project to develop advanced tools for life scientists studying fungi and archaea. With USD $10 million in funding from Wellcome, a global charitable foundation, Cultivarium aims to create a thriving ecosystem of biologists equipped with cutting-edge technologies to study and engineer these enigmatic organisms for human health, sustainability, and biotechnology applications.

Despite their growing scientific importance, research progress on fungi and archaea has been severely hampered by the limited number of model species and insufficient research tools available for scientists. Wellcome is investing more than £50 million to help researchers explore the crucial roles of fungi in human health and climate solutions.

“This is an incredibly exciting initiative. Cultivarium is uniquely positioned to advance technologies with the focus and speed required to help us better understand fungi and archaea,” said Viv Goosens, Research Manager at Wellcome. “By developing foundational tools, we can empower researchers to make new discoveries that make a meaningful impact on improving people’s health around the world.”

Since its founding in 2021, Cultivarium has established itself as a leader in developing tools for working with exotic microbes. The organization has created a comprehensive suite of technologies that enable scientists to grow, manipulate, and study these “non-model” microbes that are difficult or impossible to work with in the lab. This support will expand Cultivarium's capabilities to specifically tackle fungi and archaea, which have distinct biological properties requiring specialized approaches.

"We're incredibly grateful for Wellcome’s generous support and excited to build a community of researchers who will have access to new, customized tools to tackle urgent global challenges," said Henry Lee, co-founder and chief executive officer of Cultivarium. "The tools we're developing will dramatically improve the accessibility of these organisms for the global scientific community. Our vision is to give researchers the ability to explore the full microbial universe, and this collaboration marks a crucial step to realizing that goal."

Leveraging Cultivarium’s unique strength in handling non-model microbes, the program will focus on three core areas: developing improved cultivation methods, creating genetic engineering tools specifically designed for diverse fungi and archaea, and strengthening the global network of researchers by sharing knowledge and resources.

"Fungi and archaea represent an extraordinary untapped resource for scientific discovery and biotechnology innovation, yet most species remain inaccessible to scientists," said Nili Ostrov, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Cultivarium. "Wellcome’s support will enable us to work deeply with fungal and archaeal scientists to develop the precise technologies they need to advance their research."

"Cultivarium's rapid progress to make non-model microbes genetically tractable in the laboratory exemplifies our FRO vision in action. Wellcome's support highlights the potential of their impactful work in priority research areas such as fungi and archaea. Convergent Research was founded to help organizations like this turn bold scientific hunches into practical tools that unlock new frontiers," added Anastasia Gamick, co‑founder and Chief Operating Officer at Convergent.

Cultivarium has already implemented its platform to develop genetic tools in over 300 different non-model microbes in its laboratory, generating thousands of growth profiles and protocols for DNA delivery and engineering across the microbial tree of life. These efforts will significantly expand the scope of organisms available for discovery and innovation in medicine, sustainable agriculture and biomanufacturing.

To learn more about Cultivarium's project with Wellcome, visit here.

About Cultivarium

Cultivarium's mission is to develop innovative tools that empower life scientists to study and engineer the diverse organisms in our ecosystem. Our work spans bacteria, fungi, archaea, and protists. We have successfully developed growth profiles, delivery protocols, and molecular tools for over 300 microbes — some of which have never been engineered in laboratory settings before. Learn more at cultivarium.org.

About Wellcome

Wellcome supports science to solve the urgent health challenges facing everyone. We support discovery research into life, health and wellbeing, and we’re taking on three worldwide health challenges: mental health, infectious disease and climate and health.

About Convergent Research

Convergent Research brings together scientific founders and funders to design, launch, and operate Focused Research Organizations (FROs) across a range of fields. Our FROs build pivotal infrastructure that bridges gaps to breakthrough scientific research, proving out a new operating model for science that enables a high level of team science and systems engineering for public goods creation.

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"Our vision is to give researchers the ability to explore the full microbial universe, and this collaboration marks a crucial step to realizing that goal." - Henry Lee, PhD, Cultivarium CEO