Team:NCTU Formosa/ApexBio

Consultation

ApexBio

The iGEM organization has a strong history of promoting “bio-tools” to support industries in need. However, walking out of the labs and commercializing the products is something hard to achieve. During the process of developing products, we must address a lot of problems about mass production and quality control, etc. To have a strong connection with commercialization, we consulted APEX BIOTECHNOLOGY CORPORATION which is an international holistic development company. The ApexBio struggles on research, development, production, and sales relating biotechnology products, especially biosensors. It is the prime company which has deeply impact on bio-detection. Since our APOllO E.Cotector focus on the detection of prescribing therapy, we believe that this consultation would really lead us to a great breakthrough.

The crucial points we want to figure out during the consultation:  ■Seek recommendation of developing our APOllO E.Cotector  ■Seek advice for the revolution from research to development  ■Seek answer about the position of our APOllO E.Cotector in the field of biodetection.

The thought-provoking lessons we learned

Transition of research to development:
At present, we put every effort for pursuing flawless and convinced experiments results to form our APOllO E.Cotector. However, after the conversation, we realized that experiments results are just the first step of commercialization. In order to further develop our APOllO E.Cotector into product, we must consider a lot of factors in reality. The BioApex has mentioned that the stability and specificity are two essential points that we must control in mass production. For example, the concentration (CFU), oxygen flux, and temperature of bacteria and the process of purification must be under control.

Expiration date of products:
In addition to meeting up the customer needs, the company must ensure that the products are safe. Moreover, the expiration date must be clearly indicated to remind customers. Thanks to ApexBio’s recommendation, we contemplate about the length of E.Cotector’s effective performance. Hence, we redesigned our experiment to achieve high standard of safety and get more closed to commercialization. To get more details about our experiments, please see Safety page.

Product Packaging:
Without very impressive and attractive product packaging, our marvelous E.Cotector can’t exert its potential to contribute to the society. The ApexBio gave some advice about our presentation and some skills of product packaging, which made us more brainstorming.

After this trip to consult ApexBio company, we reassured the prominent value of our project and revised it to optimized. Our APOllO E.Cotector will have an impact beyond description and promote the iGEM organization spirit: create synthetic biology tools to contribute to the world.