Entrepreneurship
Overview of the Project
Currently, the ICG imaging effect used in fluorescence surgical navigation is not ideal, and the performance of excellent fluorescent contrast agents is seriously lacking, far from keeping pace with the hardware development speed. Therefore, in order to break through the technical bottleneck and achieve more precise tumor resection, our team designed and modified the near-infrared II fluorescent protein probe, which can solve the problem of probe delivery to some extent and achieve early detection and in-surgery diagnosis for specific diseases. We conducted a thorough market research and analysis of the potential market, and conducted a very thorough risk assessment. Through the research results, we exchanged and cooperated with doctors from major hospitals in Changchun to find a more suitable product for clinical application and meet the needs of key stakeholders. Our business plan includes a comprehensive SWOT analysis, strategic planning, production schedule timeline, target market, partners, and financing structure. Our team's business plan also includes a sales forecast for the future market of the product.
Business Plan
Value Proposition
In the current field of medical diagnosis, accurate and efficient diagnostic techniques are the key to improve the treatment effect and reduce medical costs. However, although traditional diagnostic methods such as X-ray, CT scan and MRI are widely used in clinical practice, they are often accompanied by radiation risk, high cost, and limited ability to image soft tissue details. Therefore, the development of new, non-invasive or minimally invasive diagnostic techniques with high sensitivity and high specificity has become an urgent need in the medical field. Biomimetic fluorescent proteins can be used for real-time intra-operative navigation to help surgeons accurately identify tumor boundaries, micro metastases and lymphatic systems, thereby improving the thoroughness and success rate of surgery.
Key Resources
Our core technology is based on the modification of human serum albumin (HSA) to become an efficient carrier carrying a NIR-II fluorescent dye, enabling high specificity and sensitivity imaging of disease markers. In the process of constructing bionic protein fluorescent probes for precision imaging, our scientific foundation is built on three main technical pillars: molecular docking and kinetic simulation, protein engineering and chemical modification, and in-depth study of biocompatibility and pharmacokinetics. Our team members come from many different schools in the university, such as the School of Chemistry, the School of Mathematics, the School of Arts, the School of Business, etc., and their overall comprehensive ability is very excellent, which ensures our comprehensive progress in many aspects of the project, from chemical research to business planning, international vision and data analysis.
Customer Segments
In order to further understand the public perception of biomimetics fluorescent protein probes and the cutting-edge technology and market transformation of synthetic biology, our team conducted interviews with Beijing ACRO Biosystems Group and InnoModels Biotechnology (Beijing) Co., Ltd.
Among them, Dr. Ren, the operation director of ACRO Biosystems Group, gave us a wonderful lecture of clinical diagnosis industry briefing, introduced the development frontier and application direction of medical diagnosis/detection in the field of life science to the team, and after the lecture, had a warm discussion with the team members on whether the iGEM project of the team this year was practical from the perspective of the industry. In the interview with Kai Kang, founder and executive vice president of InnoModels, we had a deeper understanding of the classification catalogue of medical devices and the declaration rules and procedures of three types of medical devices. In view of the research field of the team members, Mr. Kang also put forward suggestions, and explained the metabolic process of the drugs studied by the team from different dimensions as well as the current diagnosis and treatment of tumor cells in the field of chemistry. Finally, Mr. Kang introduced the tumor model and its future application scenarios for the team on the basis of the current project achievements.
Revenue Streams
The funding sources are composed of angel financing, strategic financing and company self-financing. Among them, angel financing was 3 million yuan, strategic financing was 2 million yuan, and the company raised 500,000 yuan by itself.The specific use and allocation of funds are in four aspects: fixed assets, technology research and development, management expenses and other expenses.
Channels
Through the preliminary questionnaire survey on cancer prevention and treatment, we learned that the public's knowledge of this type is mainly through social media, websites and other platforms. Therefore, we have created a new media matrix of all platforms, including mainstream media such as WeChat Official Accounts, Instagram and TikTok, to promote the promotion of our products through two-way interactive forms such as dissemination of tumor prevention knowledge, team communication and public propaganda. At present, the number of page views on each platform exceeds 15,000, and the number of fans has increased by 178% compared with the same period. Meanwhile, the scientific research projects conducted by the team have been publicized and reported by dozens of domestic scientific research media.
In addition to online publicity and other channels, we have also made team-related cultural and creative products and publicity brochures for easier knowledge popularization offline. Cultural and creative products have been well received, and our design team is also making more diversified creations to lay the foundation for future product commercialization.
