We are happy to extend a warm “EmerGence welcome” to our newest client, Chinova Bioworks from Fredericton, New Brunswick. Welcome to Canada’s bioscience incubation program!
A semi-finalist in the 2016 BioInnovation Challenge, and a recent participant in the world’s first synthetic biology accelerator IndieBio in the European biotech hub of Cork, Ireland, Chinova’s vision is to play a role in reducing the spoilage of products, and thus reduce waste, using natural chitosan formulations that are safe and biocompatible to consumers. Their acceptance into the IndiBio accelerator program came with a US$100,000 investment from the Princeton, N.J.,-based venture capital firm SOSV, which hosts the life sciences accelerator. Read more here!
Chinova Bioworks describes itself as a “Canadian biotechnology company developing an antimicrobial agent from fungal-sourced chitosan biopolymer”. Their core technology comes from New Brunswick’s Mycodev Group, the majority shareholder of Chinova Bioworks. The company is run by CEO Natasha Dhayagude, CTO Tanzina Huq, and COO David Brown.
Statistics indicate that last year in the U.S. alone, over 700,000 people got infections from visiting a hospital.
In addition, consumers threw out $109B worth of rotten food and beverages, and over 200,000 bottles of cosmetics spoiled.
Chinova CEO, Natasha Dhayagude – centre
These, Chinova argues, are just a few statistics in the “worldwide war against bad microorganisms”.
Each industry, they believe, faces the common problem of microbes, but with different microorganisms to combat. Furthermore, the traditional “one size fits all” antimicrobial agents are becoming less effective and industries are looking for personalized antimicrobial solutions. At the same time, industries are under intense pressure from the public to use fewer chemical sounding preservatives in products. Something about drinking sodium benzoate just does not sound attractive!
The stated goal of start-up venture Chinova Bioworks is to solve the common problem of microbial contamination. The company is focused on developing a solution to this problem using a biopolymer called Chitosan.
The key benefit of this platform technology, they believe, is that it will allow Chinova to work on personalizing a highly effective, safe, label-friendly, and natural antimicrobial to address the needs of each industry’s individual microbial issues.
Starting with the beverage industry, Chinova Bioworks hope to make advancements that will allow them to expand into higher-end markets such cosmetics, medical and pharmaceutical industries.
For further information, please click here, or contact Natasha Dhayagude, CEO, Chinova Bioworks on 1-506-262-1348 or e-mail her at: natashad@chinovabioworks.com. You can also read an interview with Natasha here!