Overview

fishPHARM first started as an iGEM summer project motivated, but has quickly evolved into a novel start-up company with potential for immediate application and long-term impact. We have engaged in several entrepreneurship endeavors to facilitate the growth of fishPHARM as not only a synthetic biology based project, but as a locally-based business venture capable of curing BCWD worldwide. We have also partnered with a variety of fish hatcheries and research institutes in the New York State Finger Lakes Region to help take our discoveries from the lab bench and meet the demands of a growing consumer market. Through conversations with these hatcheries, which deal with bacterial coldwater disease daily, we are able to analyze the safety implications of deploying our product in the fish farming industry and compare the economic costs of our product to current solutions. fishPHARM is designed directly with the needs of your everyday fish farmer in mind. By collaborating with our consumers in the initial stages, we aim to develop a product that is not only safe and effective, but also is practical for treating BCWD in the real-world.

Hatchery Collaborations

Flavobacterium, the bacteria causing the growth of BCWD, was first reported in the early 1920s. Since then, it has emerged in both wild and propagated stocks near the Great Lakes, which remains the largest freshwater ecosystem on earth. Fish farmers have attempted a variety of methods to combat BCWD - from with pyridylmercuric acetate in the 1950s and 1960s, which is now a banned substance, to the current method of hydrogen peroxide.

Despite these methods, flavobacterium continued to affect hatcheries in the Great Lakes. In 2006, flavobacterium was found in a sea lamprey located in Lake Ontario, demonstrating that flavobacterium, though primarily affecting salmon and trout, may be able to affect other types of fish as well. In 2010, flavobacterium was found in more than 25% of rainbow trout returning to spawn in the spring.

And so here we are, in 2015, where there is still no cure for BCWD. We were inspired to start fishPHARM after seeing the effects of BCWD locally. We found that fish hatcheries in the Finger Lakes region, close to where we reside, constantly deal with BCWD, and wanted to aid the fish farmers in a more personal way.

fishPHARM is unique because no iGEM team has ever shared a collaboration with local fish hatcheries. We closely worked with Bath Hatchery, Rome Hatchery, and the Cornell Biological Field Station through phone calls and visits, and used this to evolve our product. The employees at all three of these hatcheries and organizations were able to provide personal accounts of their experiences with BCWD. We first toured Bath Hatchery, and were able to gain a behind the scenes look at how fish are bred and treated. Bob Sweet, a long-time employee, spoke to us about how he has seen BCWD kill up to 1000 fish in their hatchery a day. He also detailed the various statistics that he uses to check the quality of the water that the fish reside in. We used this information to develop our Heimdall app and ensure that it would provide valuable data to everyday fish farmers.

We then contacted Rome Hatchery, which has a pathology lab and specifically researches diseases such as BCWD. From Andy Noyes, a fish pathologist at Rome, we learned that BCWD affects 10-20% of fish at 8 out of 10 fish hatcheries in the area. BCWD is also particularly a nuisance because it is a vertically transmitted disease. We also were able to better understand the process that fish farmers take to treat their fish. Typically, once fish farmers notice BCWD, they will flush hydrogen peroxide through the water. If BCWD continues to occur, they will then add antibiotics. The problems with these methods are two-fold. First, hydrogen peroxide is expensive at 55 gal of H202 FDA grade for $500, and antibiotics are double this cost. Second, bacteria can easily develop resistance to antibiotics over time, so antibiotics are not a long-term solution.

Economic Analysis

Environmental Impact

iGEM Collaborations