ECS-Seas is a project that aims to significantly improve the quality of the world's drinking water by developing an innovative and environmentally friendly way to biodegrade phthalates. Our solution can be implemented in the treatment of drinking water at various stages of the water cycle where phthalates can be encountered: in the household, during the treatment of wastewater discharged from cities and factories, and also proposes a universal platform for enzyme immobilization. Our interdisciplinary team allowed us to put together biotechnological innovations with 3D printing.
From the beginning of the project, we wanted the results of our research to contribute to the development of a solution that could be put into widespread use. Commercialization of research project results is a completely new issue for our team, but thanks to the support of many experts in this topic, we were able to estimate the potential of our idea and prepare the foundations for business development. SPARK*Gdansk introduced us to the basics of market analysis (BMC, SWOT, PEST) and helped us identify stakeholders. iGEM StartUp: Summer School gave us a broad look at the world of biotech startups and pointed out some important aspects we should look into. And the meetings with BIOTON and BioForum representatives gave us hope for successful scale up, bringing our solution to life, and helped create a development strategy and corresponding timeline.
Phthalates are among the group of EDCs (Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals), and have negative effects on human and animal health. Despite this, they are still used in industry on a massive scale. These compounds are added to plastic products to improve their mechanical properties - they are present in the vast majority of everyday items: food containers, cosmetics and perfumes, toys, electronic devices, etc [1]. Since the chemical structure of compounds included in EDCs is similar to that of animal hormones, they can disrupt the endocrine system and adversely affect human and animal health and development, as numerous studies have shown [2]. For more on the effects of phthalates on living organisms, see Description and Human Practices.
According to the literature review and our discussions with experts, phthalates enter the environment, among other ways, through wastewater from urban areas. Wastewater treatment plants do not clean the water of such compounds, but most of them accumulate in sludge, which is separated from the water in the treatment process [3]. However, this does not solve the problem, as phthalates are then released into the environment when these sludges are stored in the open areas.
Phthalates present in the environment are not easily biodegradable and, as a result, common in large bodies of water, as shown, among other things, by an analysis of the Baltic Sea waters, where the presence of phthalate group compounds was detected in every water sample from large Baltic cities [4]. Restrictions on their use are also introduced by lawmakers only to a limited degree.
EDC-Seas is a project that aims to draw attention to the problem of endocrine disrupting chemicals and to demonstrate that it is possible to enzymatically degrade these harmful compounds. We are the first to offer an innovative solution for enzymatic degradation of phthalates into compounds that are easily biodegradable in the environment. The identified degradation pathway and the enzymes that enable it, combined with a cellulosome-based immobilization system, is our proposal to improve the quality and safety of drinking water. The universal form of our solution allows it to be best suited to the application site for the most effective water treatment. Along the way, we have explored the possibility of using this solution in wastewater treatment plants, the biotechnology industry and as a filter for individual customer.
We are fortunate that our team consists of people who are passionate about biotechnology and are eager to explore further opportunities to turn the knowledge they have gained into developing practical solutions. We believe that interdisciplinary teams are the key to developing successful, solutions that can have a broad impact on the world around us. In addition, we are grateful that our team is supported by people with extensive experience, knowledge and skills and by two of the largest universities in Poland.
Our team consists of very hard-working students who have gained experience in many areas of biotechnology. Wet lab members work, on a daily basis with genetic engineering, bacteria, proteins and even eukaryotic cancer cells. We are also not limited to one field, one member is passionate about 3D printing, website design and robotics. Moreover, you can see our passion for sharing knowledge and the digital graphics used for this purpose on our Instagram.
We are aware that we lack some skills and experience, but thanks to the support of our project by various institutions and organizations such as BioForum, we have managed to gain many valuable relationships, thanks to which we have a chance to find many more passionate people to join the team in the future.
The government can have a big impact on our business because it is able to impose a restriction regulating work with GMMs. Tightening regulations would result in a significant slowdown in development. In addition, the government can heavily finance our business. There are many accelerator programs that distribute public funds for the development of innovations, such us NCBiR (Narodowe Centrum Badań i Rozwoju). At the same time, the ecological nature of our filter is in line with current trends in green technology development.
Figure 1. Graph showing stakeholder analysis
We can divide our potential customers into two groups: individual customers and industrial customers. Individual customers who care about their health will be interested in our solution, but they have little influence on it, because we want to prepare a one-size-fits-all product for all customers. On the other hand, industrial factories producing plastic or biotech companies will be more interested in our solution if they want their company to be more environmentally friendly. They will also have a lot of influence on it, because filtration systems using our enzymes would have to be designed specifically for their facility.
Scientists may have little interest in our project, however, further scientific developments may result in the discovery of new, more efficient enzymes that degrade compounds in the EDCs group. Such discoveries may allow us to develop a more efficient filter or expand our product base with solutions that degrade other chemical compounds.
As part of our entrepreneurial efforts, we wanted to conduct an impact analysis, as we hope to launch the project as a successful and influential start-up company in the future. Our project will have a direct impact on water quality, effectively purifying water from phthalate contamination and minimizing the risk of developing diseases related to exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Assuming our prototype filter is successfully commercialized, it could be deployed in households around the world as a replaceable drinking water filter, directly protecting consumers, or as an additional filter for sanitary wastewater, preventing further release of phthalates into the environment from artificial fibers from laundry.
If we can scale-up our filter, it could potentially be deployed in water treatment plants, purifying water on a larger scale. The commercialization and further development of the project, as well as its implementation in water treatment plants, will generate revenue and have an indirect impact, leading to growth in the Polish economy.
What distinguishes our approach is the selectivity with which each specialized enzyme was produced in association with a specific dockerin domain. This approach ensures their integration into the naturally occurring cellulosome scaffolding. Our design allows for a modular combination of these enzymes, promising a significant increase in the efficiency of dibutyl phthalate (DBP) degradation and, consequently, increased water purification efficiency.
Moreover, the modular nature of our protein scaffolding opens the door to future advances, enabling attachment of different enzymes and design of new metabolic pathways to further improve drinking water quality. We strongly believe that our research will inspire other scientists to use the power of synthetic biology and search for new, ecological and effective ways of water purification.
Polish biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries are experiencing one of the most significant economic growths among the European Countries [5]. Biotechnology companies are looking for innovation, and many of them are also open to collaboration with student teams like ours. We were able to attract important partners whose support enabled us to participate in the iGEM competition, significant project development and preliminary R&D work. In addition, our project is an innovative solution that has the potential to improve drinking water quality locally, as well as the Baltic Sea. This is an important issue for our local community, which is highlighted by the fact that our idea was determined to be financially supported not only by Gdansk universities (Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology UG&MUG, University of Gdansk and Medical University of Gdansk) but also by local government and foundations: the City of Gdansk, the Self-Government of the Pomeranian Voivodeship (Samorząd Województwa Pomorskiego) and the Gdansk Foundation for Economic Development (Gdańska Fundacja Rozwoju Gospodarczego). Moreover, our project was recognized and supported by Foundation for Polish Science. This partnership also gave us credibility, because the Foundation supports the best Polish scientific initiatives and scientists.
The equipment necessary for our research was made available to us by the Faculty, while laboratory reagents were donated to us by Polish biotechnology companies such as A&A Biotechnology, BIOKOM and Lab-Jot. We also wouldn't be able to succeed without the help of companies such as IDT, TWIST Bioscence, New England Biolabs, MERCK and SnapGene, which offered us their products and services for free.
BioForum - association of the biggest polish biotechnology companies - not only supported us financially, but also we were offered a possibility to showcase our project at the Central European BioForum, which is the biggest, annual conference and opportunity to establish valuable business partnerships. Moreover, BioForum management will be happy to help us develop our start-up idea into business after the iGEM Competition.
Additionally, BioForum announced our project among its members and BIOTON company showed great interest in our project. Bioton is among the world’s top eight commercial manufacturers of recombinant human insulin and they think that they could use our immobilisation system to lower their production costs. They offered us financial support, listened to our start-up pitch and we talked about possibility of working together to scale up our solution in the future.
Business Model Canvas is a great framework that proved extremely useful to organize our ideas in a visual, structured way. It helped us tremendously to see which parts of our business idea need more attention and consultation with experts.
We designed our cellulosome-based, enzyme immobilization system in a way that allows us to apply it to a wide variety of applications. Therefore, in exploring the possibility of creating a product from our technology, we analyzed two scenarios:
Consequently, we decided to prepare two Business Model Canvas. Although several points remain identical (Key resources, Key activities, Key partners, Cost), a few distinguish them.
Business model canvas #1 - individual customerPEST is a tool that allows you to estimate the impact of macroeconomics on your business. This analysis helps identify the biggest external factors that can affect the way a company operates and its profits. PEST stands for Political, Economic, Social and Technological.
SWOT is a popular technique for organizing and analyzing information to help figure out where a company stands. It is used as a universal tool for the first stage of strategic analysis. It allows you to use the gathered information to develop an action strategy based on Strengths and Opportunities, while eliminating or reducing Weaknesses and Threats.
This analysis helped us a lot to establish an initial overview of the business idea and to plan further activities and analysis.
Strengths of the team
Strengths of the product
We believe that one of our main strengths is the diverse experience of the team members and the high level of commitment to the project, which is why we were able to develop a project of this scope with only 11 students. Our vision is shared by many institutions and companies that have offered us invaluable support and given us additional opportunities for development.
We also attach great importance to our social media presence, thanks to which we were able to build a trustworthy image and reach a wide audience with our project.
When it comes to our product we believe that easy to use filters would appeal to a wide range of customers who care about their health. Additionally, biodegradable components of our product, such as proteins and cellulose, would highly reduce the negative environmental impact of our company.
The team consists mainly of life science students and we lack people with direct experience in business development, which significantly slows down our advancement. To improve this situation we have learned a great deal on our own in recent months as well as BioForum and Bioton have offered us some helpful support. In the future we would need to keep that in mind when expanding our business team.
The project is still in intense development phase so a lot of steps require significant optimalization. Having preliminary results we will be able to reach out to experts with detailed questions.
Our resources are limited and we won’t be able to develop the final product on our own, but we have already identified potential future partners, investors and collaborations.
The fact that we have taken on a little-explored topic gives us many opportunities for development. Because we are the first in an untapped market, we have no direct competition in the topic of phthalate water treatment.
Also working in our favor is the growing public interest in environmental protection, which can be seen from the increasing number of products labeled "bio" or "biodegradable" in stores.
The positive response to our project by the University, the city of Gdansk and companies such as BIOTON S.A. gives us a lot of opportunities for further development of our project.
GMO products are a controversial issue in Poland, and combined with low public awareness of the dangers of endocrine disrupting chemicals, our product could be met with negative perceptions. In order to raise public awareness of the possibilities for improving the quality of life provided by modern biotechnolgy, we have undertaken a number of educational activities, which you can read about on our Education page.
Our lack of business experience creates the threat of being easily taken advantage of by a large company, especially when we don't have an IP yet. To strengthen our team and enhance our business development capabilities, we need to consult our situation with lawyers and IP experts.
Our project will require a few more crucial experiments before entering the next stage of development, but thanks to our partnership with BIOTON, we now know what steps to take to increase our chances of selling the final product.
In the initial phase of the project, we were not familiar with the topic of patent rights and intellectual property protection. It was only during the project, thanks to consultations with experts and iGEM StartUp: Summer School that we learned more about this topic, but unfortunately we did not have time to conduct an in-depth analysis of the possibilities of protecting our project. However, we now know what needs to be done and will explore these possibilities after the competition. We plan to examine existing patents in the area of our interest and try to file a provisional application.
To receive a patent for a biotechnology invention, it must meet the following conditions:
We believe that our invention has the potential to receive IP protection due to its innovative approach to an unaddressed problem. Industrial applicability is an aspect that we are intensively exploring and consulting with those who are directly interested, which you can read about below.
Commercialization of our project and further development work as well as production of the ready-to-use filtration systems themselves will require working with genetically modified microorganisms (GMMs). According to the law in Poland [11], the production will have to be carried out in a facility that has the status of a genetic engineering facility and meets all the relevant requirements for safe work with microorganisms. Such a facility is the Inter-University Faculty of Biotechnology of UG and GUMed, where we have been working on the project. Once the competition is over, we will have to apply for permission to continue working within it. However, further expansion would require moving the team for safety, for example, to the nearby Pomeranian Science and Technology Park in Gdynia, which has space suitable for the development of biotech startups.
Our finished product - a filtration system - would not contain microbial fragments, but genetically modified organisms are used in its production. An analogous situation exists at BIOTON. They made us aware of the importance of inspecting the finished product and confirming the absence of GMOs in it. In the future, they will be able to advise us on what analyses and safeguards during protein production we should carry out to ensure the greatest safety for customers.
In the process of exploring Entrepreneurship, we started practically from scratch. Our previous course of study did not include any topics related to translating scientific research results into a business plan. However, a lot of hope has come from positive feedback from representatives of biotech companies and others. We have received many valuable tips, gained new contacts and acquired a new perspective.
Below are the most important meetings and conversations that had the greatest impact on our project and set us on the path we will follow after the iGEM competition.
The Minimum Viable Product is a rudimentary product that can be used to collect data and information for the purpose of validating a concept. For us, this meant obtaining two enzymes (esterase and decarboxylase) and a protein scaffold, and then demonstrating their presumed activity. At this point we have been able to produce esterase and decarboxylase, and confirm only the activity of esterase. Although we did not achieve the expected MVP, we believe we received a Proof of Concept (POC).
POC is a stage that is used to test the main elements of the project to verify the possibility of receiving a complete product. At this stage, it is easy to make modifications and tweaks to individual elements. Throughout our project, we confirmed that the components we designed and the experimental methods we selected enabled us to produce the selected proteins. In addition, we confirmed, the predicted activity of one of the enzymes. This is especially important for us because we relied only on literature data; the enzymes we selected had not been studied in detail before. [12].
The strong industry interest we have received indicated a high product potential.
In September, we met online with representatives of BIOTON S.A., who were interested in the potential application of our cellulosome-based immobilization system to their production line. Bioton is one of the world's 8 manufacturers (on a commercial scale) of recombinant human insulin and the unquestionable leader in Poland. The company's uniqueness lies, among other things, in carrying out the production of the insulin precursor, followed by its processing and preparation of the ready-to-sell product at a single facility. Immobilization of selected enzymes using our cellulosome-based system would make it possible to reduce their production costs.
We met with Mr. Dariusz Gurtowski (the Manufacturing, Science & Technology Director) and his team - they are engaged in investigating the potential of new methods and technologies that can improve the production process. We have presented them the details of our project and a proposal to apply it on a larger scale. In return, we received very valuable feedback and learned firsthand, among other things, what the process of introducing our solution to the production line would look like and what stages it would have to go through.
Figure 2. Graph showing the successive stages of project development that we would have to go through on the way to scale-up.
A few important things to take into consideration:
Accurate documentation of experiments is an element that should not be forgotten during the intensive phase of development research. An accurately described R&D process, will make it much easier to reproduce it and carry out the first phase of testing in the industrial laboratory.
- Dariusz Gurtowski, (Manufacturing, Science & Technology Director at BIOTON S.A.)
The team's belief in the potential of our solution has greatly motivated us to continue our work, and thanks to the valuable guidance, we know how to plan the subsequent research so that the results of our project can lead us to scale-up.
However, our partnership didn't end with just conversations. BIOTON's team also invited us to visit their facility and laboratory in Warsaw. During the visit, we were given a tour of the production line and laboratory, where the principles of large-scale protein production using bioreactors were explained to us.
After the tour, we were also honored to also meet with Mr. Jeremy Launders - President Of The Management Board at Bioton, who expressed great interest in our project.
Afterwards, we had a lot of time to talk to the members of Manufacturing, Science & Technology Team, who answered many of our questions regarding our project and explained what their daily work at one of the largest biotechnology companies in Poland looks like.
You can read more about how feedback from BIOTON S.A. helped us to improve our project on the HUMAN PRACTICES page.
To assess the applicability of our filter in wastewater treatment plants we visited one in Toruń - Toruńskie Wodociągi.
Tomasz Lewandowski - deputy director of wastewater treatment plant explained to us the entire wastewater treatment process and all of the steps involved. We then had the opportunity to visit each of the steps during a tour of the facility. Finally, we presented him with our project and the idea of its application and had a valuable discussion. Thanks to Mr. Tomasz's extensive experience and knowledge, three important conclusions came out of our conversation:
Thanks to this very eye-opening visit, we know better what next steps we should take to increase the chances of bringing our application to market and improving the quality of water entering the environment from urban areas.
Our team received an invitation to the CE BioForum Conference which will take place in March of 2024, from dr Magdalena Kulczycka - The Director of The Association of Biotechnology Companies BioForum.
The primary mission of CEBioForum is to promote the Polish life science sector in Poland and abroad. The aim of the initiative to create new opportunities for Polish biotechnology companies to establish business relationships, which actually supports their development. The key tool for achieving this goal is the annual organization of fairs. Each spring during the fair, a wide range of topics where biotechnology is applicable are discussed.
We received an offer to present our project during the Conference, which is an unique opportunity to present it to a wider business audience. In addition, the event is a great chance to find valuable partners to further develop the business.
After the competition, we want to continue developing the project, especially since we have received preliminary promising results from our experiments. Based on the knowledge gained, valuable conversations and experiences, we have proposed a timeline for the development of the project for the next few years. Immediately after the end of the project, we want to apply to startup incubators such as the local Accelerator at the Gdansk Science and Technology Park in order to gain practical knowledge of the business development and raise initial funds for research (pre-seed stage). At the same time, we will look for potential partners and investors at events such as CE BioForum. During the competition we have identified potential new applications for our solution, and in order to develop them we would like to establish close cooperation with representatives of institutions that may be directly interested in its application (e.g. Bioton).
Figure 3. Business milestones and actions that need to be taken in form of a Gantt chart.
