Alexander Speakman

Dr Alexander Speakman (he/him) is the Founder and CEO of E.V.A Biosystems, an Edinburgh-based synthetic biology start-up. He studied molecular genetics at the University of Edinburgh and completed a PhD in Bioengineering focused on DNA nanotechnology. He founded E.V.A during his doctorate with support from Edinburgh Innovations, and has since strengthened the commercial side of his work through programmes including the IBioIC Biotech Innovators accelerator and the MIT Entrepreneurship Development Programme in Boston.

E.V.A Biosystems is developing intelligent, selectively degradable plastics by embedding engineered microbes into conventional polymers during manufacture. The microbes remain dormant during use, then activate under defined environmental triggers (such as seawater-level salinity) to release enzymes that break plastics down at the polymer level.

E.V.A’s work has been recognised through UK innovation programmes including Young Scottish EDGE (2022) and Converge Challenge (2024), winning both the SSE Net Zero Award and the IBioIC Industrial Biotechnology prize. E.V.A is currently progressing its technology through an Innovate UK Bio-based Manufacturing Launchpad project in collaboration with National Manufacturing Institute Scotland, focused on bringing the technology into injection moulding.