Proof of life: How GitLife is enabling secure Synthetic Biology

Company: GitLife Biotech

‍Location: Newcastle

C-suite: Beatrix Ellis (CEO), Prof. Natalio Krasnogor (CTO), Leanne Hobs (CDO), Allistair Orr Ewing (COO)

Written by: Lucy Ahern

Edited by: Caroline Babisz & Natasha Barrow

‍

In our very first SEC Summit Startup Spotlight, Lucy Ahern takes a deep dive into GitLife, an innovative startup aiming to unlock commercial potential of cell lines through digital protection.

‍

Innovation Summary

If you engineered a new cell line, how would you prove that you created it? Unlike software development, which is traceable, controlled, and secure, synthetic biology has no universal system to prove ownership, trace provenance or securely share engineered biological assets. 

‍

GitLife has built two core technologies to address this:

‍

1. CellRepo: A digital registry with version control for biological assets. Users can register engineered strains, constructs, protocols — and they can track every edit.
2. Genosignatures: Encrypted DNA barcodes embedded directly into the genome of assets (without disrupting function), enabling proof of ownership for secure licensing and intellectual property (IP) enforcement.

‍

“Within a few years, sending engineered strains without GitLife’s barcoding and proof of provenance will be unthinkable” - Beatrix Ellis, CEO of GitLife, at the SEC summit 2025.

‍

Vision and Progress

The applications of this technology are incredibly broad. Where asset tracking has historically relied on electronic lab books — or even paper folders — GitLife provides an elegant and more secure alternative. For many labs, this could create opportunities. There are freezers full of strains that could be commercialised and monetised. For CROs and start-ups, the increased confidence in asset protection facilitates collaborations with large companies. GitLife envisions a future where every synthetic biology project begins with CellRepo, allowing teams to define their work, track iterations and protect each valuable output with Genosignatures. Their goal is to create an ecosystem where academic labs, start-ups, and CROs can register, share, and license synthetic biology assets with confidence. Initially focused on microorganisms, GitLife is expanding into plants, algae, and eventually mammalian cell lines, where verifiable IP protection will be even more critical.

‍

History

GitLife spun out of Newcastle University in 2022 with support from the Northern Accelerator, built on foundational research from Professor Natalio Krasnogor’s world-leading biocomputing lab. Krasnogor (the CTO of GitLife Biotech) is at the forefront of data, biology and biocomputing. His vision brings all these elements together. Initially he created the digital platform, which was previously missing, later adding the IP security. Beatrix Ellis joined as CEO in late 2024, bringing with her 12 years of startup leadership experience across the biotech sector and a mission to bring this technology to market. Ellis has facilitated strategy, partnerships, and fundraising efforts for GitLife. GitLife are currently onboarding their first commercial clients and are actively raising funds to accelerate product development, commercial validation, and market entry.

‍