Summary
- Profile Type
- Business Offer
- POD Reference
- BODE20230403015
- Term of Validity
- 18 April 2023 - 17 April 2025
- Company's Country
- Germany
- Type of partnership
- Commercial agreement
- Targeted Countries
- Albania
- Argentina
- Belgium
- Belarus
- Austria
- Armenia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Brazil
- Estonia
- Cyprus
- Japan
- France
- Croatia
- Canada
- Czechia
- Denmark
- Greece
- Chile
- India
- Hungary
- Indonesia
- Italy
- Israel
- China
- Cameroon
- Georgia
- Iceland
- Egypt
- Ireland
- Finland
- Bulgaria
- Germany
- Latvia
- Luxembourg
- North Macedonia
- Mexico
- Jordan
- Malta
- Lithuania
- New Zealand
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Montenegro
- Moldova
- Portugal
- Taiwan
- Spain
- Romania
- Paraguay
- Ukraine
- Slovenia
- United States
- Tunisia
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- Switzerland
- Serbia
- South Korea
- United Kingdom
- Peru
- Sweden
- Turkey
- Poland
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General information
- Short Summary
- A German cleantech start-up specialised in the extraction and processing of silk proteins looks for a distributor of silk fibroin and sericin aqueous solutions from the life science, cosmetic and/or textile industry. These innovative biomaterials with great biocompatibility, bioresorbability, versatility and scalability provide useful functions e.g. drug delivery, moisturizing properties, structural stability and antibacterial capabilities with increasing applications in food and fields above.
- Full Description
-
A German technology start-up and spin-off of a university has the central belief that nature's continued evolutionary skill should not be left unexploited.
Therefore, the start-up specializes in the isolation and further processing of proteins extracted from natural silk into an ample variety of products while benefiting from unlimited possibilities concerning further refinement and application.
With silk proteins it is indeed possible to obtain a large set of structures ranging from textiles to gels and coatings. Aside from its natural origin, the capacity of adjustable biodegradation eminently substantiates the striving role silk proteins currently inherits in the working field of biomedical engineering.
Due to its outstanding versatility, the employment of silk is not limited exclusively to the biomedical field: innovative applications in the food, cosmetic and textile industry are constantly emerging and acquiring more and more importance. Silk fibroin has indeed shown potential as an edible coating for food preservation, as a moisturizer for skin, hair and nails and as a coating and a softener in the textile field, while sericin has proved to have antitumoral and antioxidant properties.
The silk fibroin solution is currently available on the market and seen on the company website. It has medical grade purity and is constantly checked for endotoxin, bioburden and heavy metals presence.
Other products derived from silk proteins are currently in the development stage with some important results achieved also in animal trials.
One of the main objectives of the start-up is to strictly omit toxic solvents while maintaining low process costs and to remain thoroughly environmentally friendly. The effort towards a cleaner future led the German start-up to join in 2020 an European Union's Horizon 2020 Consortium whose mission is to establish a paradigm shift in the innovation process for biobased materials to accelerate the transition from a fossil-based to a biobased and circular economy.
They look for industrial partners from the field of medical/chemical/life-science/cosmetic/textile industry for commercial agreement (distribution). - Advantages and Innovations
-
Innovative and unique product obtained with an environmentally-friendly method and with great possibilities of application.
Among the main advantages and innovative aspects there are:
- the exploitation of the properties of silk fibroin and sericin, promising biomaterials, which could be a game changer in the medical and cosmetic field and whose products (both in terms of solution and derived structures) already available in the market are still limited;
- the strict avoidance of toxic solvents such as Lithium Bromide from the extraction process of silk proteins decreasing the waste and maintaining a circular approach;
- know-how in processing technologies of silk proteins such as electrospinning, freeze-thawing, dip-coating, salt-leaching and casting.
- ability to convert silk fibroin into different shapes with different structures and properties such as scaffolds, sponges, foams, membranes, gels and coatings;
- tailoring ability of the properties of silk proteins in terms of degradation time and mechanical properties. - Stage of Development
- Already on the market
- Sustainable Development Goals
- Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being
- Goal 13: Climate Action
- IPR status
- IPR applied but not yet granted
Partner Sought
- Expected Role of a Partner
-
The type of partner sought is a distributor of medical/chemical/life-science/cosmetic/textile products.
He is expected to display the product, in this case the silk proteins aqueous solution, on their communication channels (e.g., website) and to collect the orders from the customers, as well as their requests in terms of particular properties.
The partner is expected to be in contact with the company to transmit the orders and to discuss particular requests from the customer.
He is also should take care of the entire delivery process maintaining the correct storage conditions of the product. - Type and Size of Partner
- SME <=10
- Big company
- SME 11-49
- SME 50 - 249
- Type of partnership
- Commercial agreement
Dissemination
- Technology keywords
- 02007015 - Properties of Materials, Corrosion/Degradation
- 02007020 - Biobased materials
- 06002004 - Protein Engineering
- Market keywords
- 05007007 - Other medical/health related (not elsewhere classified)
- 09004003 - Textiles (synthetic and natural)
- 05007002 - Pharmaceuticals/fine chemicals
- 05008002 - Food and feed ingredients
- Targeted countries
- Albania
- Argentina
- Belgium
- Belarus
- Austria
- Armenia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Brazil
- Estonia
- Cyprus
- Japan
- France
- Croatia
- Canada
- Czechia
- Denmark
- Greece
- Chile
- India
- Hungary
- Indonesia
- Italy
- Israel
- China
- Cameroon
- Georgia
- Iceland
- Egypt
- Ireland
- Finland
- Bulgaria
- Germany
- Latvia
- Luxembourg
- North Macedonia
- Mexico
- Jordan
- Malta
- Lithuania
- New Zealand
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Montenegro
- Moldova
- Portugal
- Taiwan
- Spain
- Romania
- Paraguay
- Ukraine
- Slovenia
- United States
- Tunisia
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- Switzerland
- Serbia
- South Korea
- United Kingdom
- Peru
- Sweden
- Turkey
- Poland