Difference between revisions of "Team:Cornell/Entrepreneurship"

Harmful algae blooms (HABs) have emerged as one of our most pressing environmental crises. These blooms destroy marine and freshwater ecosystems by removing oxygen from the water as it decomposes, starving marine life. When blooms get especially dense, they block sunlight from reaching the depths of the lake, creating dead zones. They produce toxins dangerous enough to poison animals, and can cause illnesses in humans. In our very own Cayuga Lake, HABs have severely affected the quality of the ecosystem. Thus it becomes a personal interest to do what we can to tackle this issue. We developed a novel solution to detect and degrade toxic microcystin-LR (MC-LR) byproducts from HABs. Microcystins have been shown to poison and kill animals, and have caused harm to humans through irritation of the throat and lungs, and long-term kidney and liver damage. The purpose of our project is to detect and degrade MC-LR. Our solution is reHAB, an aptamer based colorimetric detection sensor to detect microcystins. To get samples for testing, we designed a boat to eliminate the need for humans to manually collect water samples and record bloom sites. This detection ability is combined with a degradation functionality. We introduced multiple enzymes that have been shown to effectively degrade MC-LR into the bacteria we use to degrade microcystins, and attached a tag from the TAT pathway to increase the efficiency of this degradation reaction. We house this within a bioreactor filled with alginate-beads that allows us to remediate large quantities of water at once.

The market for harmful algae bloom (HAB) cleanup is still developing. Control of HABs is currently focused around prevention, detection, and monitoring. Our project tackles a new area of the market: rehabilitation. Our product reHAB is able to detect and degrade one of the toxic chemicals that HABs produce, microcystin-LR (MC-LR). Our main competitor for HAB detection is a comprehensive technique called ELISA. However, this method is slow and costly: despite being considered considered one of the fastest tests, ELISA still takes a full day to yield results. Algae blooms typically only last 3-5 days, but the remnants of toxin in harmful blooms persist-- reHAB’s quicker turnaround and ability to degrade microcystins proves it is the better alternative to ELISA. Thus far, little effort has been devoted towards actual remediation. Current treatment efforts have been centered around drinking water, or controlling and preventing HABs. reHAB is one of the first to step foot into the market for targeted HAB remediation. Our project provides a quick and effective solution, targeting a new dimension of a multibillion dollar problem. HAB related economic losses in the United States was estimated to be $2.2 to $4.6 billion. The fishing industry has been particularly affected. reHAB can help minimize these losses by detecting and remediating our waters. It is novel solution to a pressing problem.

The most valuable aspect of any product lies in its intellectual property. Given that our project exists on the forefront of aptamer-based detection technology, we would aim to patent the novel components of our project through the Cornell Center for Technology Licensing (CTL). Of particular focus would be our detection system, the most unique dimension of our product. The ingenuity and relevance of our project characterizes it as a necessary step in the right direction for harmful algal bloom mitigation. Our goal is to integrate our aptamer detection mechanism into large-scale systems in a way that other monitoring strategies have been unable to accomplish. According to the World Health Organization, there is an urgent need for the development of an animal friendly, rapid and cost-effective toxin analysis methodology for the future of microcystin detection. Our project has the potential to do just that. In order to accomplish this, we plan to accomplish the following:

• Further developing the aptamer-based detection system
• Improving the automation of the boat system
• Conducting market research to compile into case studies
• Attaining resources for manufacturing and large-scale production
• Reaching out to potential investors and buyers as well as affected community members