Value proposition

A Sundew company

We are creating a potentially revolutionary algal platform technology. Thanks to major advances in algal genomics and molecular biology, microalgae can be engineered to express inexpensive therapeutic proteins and vaccines of economic value. The cost of the synthetic biology tools has dropped. We are building our technology based on solid, peer-reviewed science[1][2][3][4].
By using microalgae as an oral delivery vehicle, we can substantially cut the labor and post-processing production costs, allowing us to produce effective vaccines that are much more affordable and user-friendly. Our technology can reduce or eliminate the use of antibiotics, reduce fish mortality rates in aquaculture farms, prevent bacterial and viral diseases from wiping out entire fish stocks, and improve global food security. Farmed seafood is rapidly becoming an essential source of protein for more than half of the world's population, yet millions of tons of quality seafood is lost each year due to diseases. We want to change that.

1. Christie, K.E. (1997). Immunization with viral antigens: infectious pancreatic necrosis. Dev. Biol. Stand. 90, 191–199.

2. Demurtas, O.C., Massa, S., Ferrante, P., Venuti, A., Franconi, R., and Giuliano, G. (2013). A Chlamydomonas-derived Human Papillomavirus 16 E7 vaccine induces specific tumor protection. PLoS ONE 8, e61473.

3. Gregory, J.A., Topol, A.B., Doerner, D.Z., and Mayfield, S. (2013). Alga-Produced Cholera Toxin-Pfs25 Fusion Proteins as Oral Vaccines. Appl Environ Microbiol 79, 3917–3925.

4. Specht, E.A., and Mayfield, S.P. (2014). Algae-based oral recombinant vaccines. Front. Microbiol 5, 60.

Oral vaccine production, research and development, and biotechnology