The BRYOMOLECULES project had its midterm review meeting (M18) on 12 May 2026. The project partners had the opportunity to meet with the expert reviewer and project officer from the European Research Executive Agency (REA). We shared BRYOMOLECULES achievements so far, and discussed upcoming challenges, receiving positive feedback and valuable recommendations for the project’s future. 

This was a major check point to assess the project progress halfway through its duration, celebrate the milestones achieved and identify points of attention for improvement in the remaining 18 months.

Scientific milestones summary 

The project has successfully generated the largest coherent dataset of metabolomic and transcriptomic data for European bryophytes worldwide, shifting the technological baseline from fragmented academic data to a consolidated industrial discovery engine.
The main achievements of the project are: 

• Bryophyte Collection and Cultivation: A total of 101 distinct bryophyte taxa (49 moss species/52 accessions; 52 liverwort species/90 accessions) were collected and cultivated during the first 18 months. They constitute the core BRYOMOLECULES collection that has been used for all downstream analyses. 

• Metabolomics bioprospecting: the project obtained the metabolomes of 84 distinct bryophyte taxa (48 moss species/57 accessions; 36 liverwort species/86 accessions), thus reaching and partly exceeding the foreseen targets. Untargeted and targeted profiling (using GC-MS and LC-MS/MS) successfully annotated 346 unique metabolites in liverworts and 163 unique metabolites in mosses, spanning critical compound classes such as bibenzyls, bisbibenzyls, flavonoids, and structurally diverse sesquiterpenoids. 

• RNA-Sequencing and Gene Discovery: The project obtained the transcriptomes of 101 distinct bryophyte taxa (49 moss species/52 accessions; 52 liverwort species/90 accessions) for a total of 102 independent assemblies, thus reaching and partly exceeding the foreseen targets. 

• Metabolic Engineering: Biosynthetic genes for a total of 16 terpenoids were successfully characterized from liverwort species, identifying enzymes with highly specific activities to produce seven of them. Engineering of two BACs was initiated, with early validations identifying yeast as a highly suitable host system. 

• Discovery of New Biological Activities: the bioassays and enzymatic assays to identify novel biological activities on total bryophytes exudates or plant extracts have been carried out for a total of 96 and 24 bryophyte samples, respectively (jointly corresponding to 54 unique moss exudates and 48 moss extracts), plus three pure compounds. Additionally, the development of enzyme inhibition assays for two therapeutic targets and four cosmetic targets was carried out in view of their application to the screening of bryophyte extracts. 

Contribution beyond the state-of-the-art 

The large and highly integrated dataset of transcriptomic and metabolomic data produced in BRYOMOLECULES is unique in its kind for bryophytes. The BRYOMOLECULES dataset allows the direct association of expressed genes to the corresponding metabolic profiles as well as bioactivities, providing a more direct and effective way for the identification and engineering of the most interesting biosynthetic pathways. The main results beyond the state of the art, in more detail, are: 

• Preparation and propagation of 50 initial bryophyte accessions in liquid media and immersion bioreactors  

• Expansion of the bryophyte collection, with 129 new unique wild liverwort accessions across 79 distinct taxa 

• Establishment of 50 new axenic liverwort accessions of 45 unique taxa;  

• Optimization of cultivation techniques and protocols in bioreactors (attained TRL4) 

• Optimization of extraction and analytical protocols for low biomass bryophytes 

• Metabolomes obtained for 57 moss accessions and 86 liverwort accessions 

• Generated 114 high-quality RNA-Seq datasets from 102 biosamples  

• Improved decontamination and assembly pipelines 

• Assembled 102 transcriptomes 

• Characterized and engineered in heterologous hosts 12 terpene synthases (MTPSLs), engineering or proof of concept production of two bioactive compounds (achieved TRL4). 

• Bioactivities assessments for 100 bryophyte extracts. 

• Established six novel inhibition assays for enzymes relevant to the cosmetic and pharmaceutical sectors (TRL3). 

• Enzymatic assays performed on 24 bryophyte samples 

Looking to the future 

The BRYOMOLECULES consortium is committed to finalising the research being conducted in the second part of the project’s lifetime. In particular, in-depth mining and experimental validation of known and novel biosynthetic enzymes and pathways from liverworts will continue, along with the discovery of novel bioactivities relevant to the cosmetic and pharmaceutical sectors and beyond. Engineering of heterologous hosts for the sustainable production of bryophyte-derived bioactive compounds will result in viable options for large-scale production and uptake from the reference markets. 

To ensure further valorisation of the project results and push the demonstration, access to market and commercialization roadmap of new cosmetic and pharmaceutical products, the project consortium is looking for stakeholders possibly interested in exploring the adoption of the project results or setting up the collaboration for the development of new products and technologies – increasing the actual TRL of the BRYOMOLECULES discovery –  also through the participation in further EU projects. 

Are you or your company organisation interested in BRYOMOLECULES outputs?  
We will be happy to hear from you, so feel free to get in touch with us: contact@bryomolecules.eu . An experienced technology transfer team will support you in catching this opportunity!