Team:Dundee/HumanPractice/Commercialisation

The Dundee iGEM team had a wonderful time at the European Jamboree in Lyon. We were even lucky enough to be invited to Boston for the World Championship. The team felt that in the short time before heading to Boston we had to do something for our extra team members, such as George Potts the Countryside Ranger (LINK: Clatto Case Study).

It was an exciting accomplishment for us to prove, in principle, that our ToxiMop cells really do clean up the algae toxin microcystin. However, we wanted to maximise the impact of our project. For us, this means helping George restore Clatto to its former glory. Therefore, there is a need to commercialise ToxiMop in order to bring it to the masses. Although our time was brief we began exploring the entrepreneurial future of ToxiMop.

Business Risk Assessment

Our team visited Scott Brady, the entrepreneur in residence at Dundee University. Scott has built up and sold a number of companies from a variety of sectors. We looked to Scott for advice regarding our potential enterprise.

As scientists lacking any experience in the world of business we had some specific concerns in relation to our ToxiMop. We examined the risks of commericalisation and anticipated ways in which we could mitigate those risks. We wanted to retain an emphasis on the safety of our product despite the demand that investors would have for low costs and high returns. In the rest of this article we will explore these risks and how, with Scott’s advice, we plan to mitigate them.

Risks

Genetically engineered Bacteria in the Environment

Through modelling and characterisation of our ToxiMop we discovered that we would need a significantly large number of cells in order to clean up microcystin contaminated water. Since we do not know what affect the products of our E. coli cells will have on the environment, which in some cases may be a reservoir containing potable water, we will need to carry out a number of risk assessments. However, in the meantime we can work to minimise this risk by increasing the efficiency of our Mop to reduce the number of cells we need to use. One of the ways we hope to do this is by manipulation of the Tat pathway (LINK: project>modelling>production and export).

Our enterprise is highly entrepreneurial

When you have a potential product like ours then there is always a risk that after further product development the approach will be found to be unsuitable for the problem. To address this issue we have explored other potential applications of our ToxiMop (LINK: Other applications of the ToxiMop (this is further down the page).

Intellectual Property (IP)

In keeping with the open source philosophy of the iGEM competition all of our work up until now has been published online. So our ideas are out in the open without any protection. However, what we would aim to do would be to increase the efficiency of our ToxiMop and develop a device for deployment in the environment. These additions to our product would provide an opportunity for patent applications. At the same time patent applications can be expensive and don’t necessarily bring in money so we would need to seek further advice on intellectual property throughout the commercialisation process.

Investment

To explore investment opportunities for our project we spoke to a representative from Scottish Enterprise (Picture 1). In 2012 Scottish Enterprise pledged to provide up to £6.5 million of funding to encourage businesses to develop industrial applications for synthetic biology. Through this meeting we were made aware of the Scottish Enterprise Proof of Concept fund which aims to take inventions form the lab into the global marketplace. This fund involves capital investment as well as assistance in the form of financial advice and networking. After speaking to Scottish Enterprise I believe our project would need to be developed further before we are able to make a successful case for this funding. There is certainly more work required in the lab to develop ToxiMop into a functional device that can neutralise toxic algal blooms in a real, environmental setting. The initial capital to fund this research could come from angel investors or venture capitalists. Angels are affluent individuals who tend to invest their own funds, this is in contrast to venture capitalists who manage the pooled money of others in a professionally-managed fund.

The advice that we were given was that since our project may be of high risk then it might be more appropriate to spread that risk over a number of investors rather than having a large investment from a single source. This minimises the risk for the investor which should work in our favour when we are trying to raise funds.

Support for start-up companies can come in a variety of forms

We visited the Incubator in Dundee (Picture 2). Incubator provides lab space and assistance to start-up companies of all types and houses a number of biotech groups. It was reassuring for us to see that high quality facilities for nascent companies are available right on our door-step.

Market

We believe that corporations such as Scottish Water which provides drinking water services for the Scottish public may be interested in purchasing a device that could clean up algae toxins form reservoirs. Additionally, there a number of private water companies in England that may benefit from such a product.

In researching the market for our device we highlighted the tourist industry as a potential customer. For example, in 2011 Lake Erie in the US suffered from the largest algal bloom on record. This threatened the $11.5 Billion/year Ohio tourist industry. Since these blooms are projected to become more common due to climate change we believe this market will grow even further in the future. There are other global markets that we could target as algal blooms are regularly affecting other freshwater resources such as Lake Victoria in Africa, which is one of the largest lakes in the world. In addition private companies running water sports activities or fisheries at these lakes may be interested in our product.

Other products from the ToxiMop brand

We presented these plans to Peter Mulderry from local biotech company, CXR Biosciences (Picture 3). Drawing from his own business experience Peter spoke of the risks of working with a single product. He explained that his company started in this way and have since branched out working on many different projects simultaneously. This is particularly important in Biotechnology as there is no guarantee that any given product will be effective and/or successful in the marketplace. For this reason we have also explored the commercialisation of our electronic environmental sensor the Moptopus (Link: Moptopus commercialisation).

Other applications for ToxiMop: Tapping into other markets.

Another way that we could branch out our business is by looking at different applications for ToxiMop. ToxiMop takes advantage of the binding of PP1 to microcystin in order to remove the toxin from water. However, PP1 also binds to the toxin Okadaic Acid which is produced by marine dinoflagellates. This toxin accumulates in bivalve molluscs such as mussels. As you may know, this toxin is responsible for causing Diarrhetic Shellfish Poisoning. In June 2013, a human intoxication incident involving mussels sourced from Shetland in Scotland made the national headlines. This resulted in the closure of harvesting sites and withdrawal from sale of mussels traced back to these sites. Intoxication events, like this one, could damage public confidence in Scottish mussels. We believe preventing repeat events will have financial benefits for the mussel industry. Targeting the Food industry in Scotland could lead to investment opportunities and also unlock a much larger customer base for our product. The mussel market in Scotland is a prosperous one and has grown in recent years with production of abround 1,400t in 1999 increasing to 5,800t in 2008.

To tap into this growing market we would have to ensure that our ToxiMop actually cleans up Okadaic Acid. The human PP1 protein does normally bind this toxin but we have not confirmed, through experimentation, that our ToxiMop cells do.

The possibilities are endless!

We have submitted BioBricks for the signal peptides (LINK: BIOBRICKS PAGE) which target proteins to the periplasm of gram negative Bacteria, allowing the binding protein better access to the harmful substance. These signal peptides can be used to target other proteins to the periplasmic space. With our company we would aim to explore the use of other mop proteins in order to target other toxins and pollutants.

Profit

The profit potential of ToxiMop is likely to be substantial. Even given the costs of bringing to market, preserving intellectual ownership and accessing the global market, the product presents the opportunity to create profits which would allow for additional investment as well as a return on capital. Achieving both these aspects means that product integrity can be fortified as well as investors seeing an attractive financial reward for early support.

Scott Brady Entrepreneur in residence at Dundee University.

“Having met with the team and interrogated the commercial applicability of the innovation I remain convinced that this idea is a winner. There is a clear appreciation that the vital components of the science must be in place to allow for a market opportunity to be exploited. What marks the ToxiMop out as being different is the strength of the team, the exactitude of the research and the clear desire to see a commercial opportunity being exploited. These are the features that are characteristic of those that appeal to investors. Good products in themselves do not make for successful market opportunities. The correct balance has to be in place that allows the team dynamics to drive the innovation through to a market-ready product that customers will wish to buy at a price that creates profits. ToxiMop passes these tests. The idea shows all of the best features of success in a highly competitive market segment where commercial advantage is taken by those with an early lead. The early success has already been demonstrated.”