November 15, 2023: project granted: “Lab to Field” – NRW Patent Validation for “Chitosan-Coated Emulsion and Uses Thereof”

Today finally, we received the granting letter for our NRW Patent Validation project "Lab to Field". This will allow Dr. Sruthi Sreekumar and Dr. Carolin Richter, founders-to-be of our next start-up "greEnCAP", to perform field trials to add value to our patent "Chitosan-Coated Emulsion and Uses Thereof". During her doctoral project with us, Sruthi had developed this method to stabilize oil-in-water emulsions by coating submicron lipid-droplets with a thin film of chitosan. She used this method to prepare stable microemulsions of hydrophobic bioactives such as anticancer drugs or antimicrobial essential oils from medicinal plants, to improve their bioavailability and overall usability. Selecting a suitable bioactive chitosan for the coating in addition allows to harvest potential synergistic effects, e.g. for the development of a plant biopesticide for sustainable, environment-friendly and customer-safe agriculture. For the latter, she teamed up with Carolin who had, during her post-doctoral research with us, developed the bioassays required to verify and optimize these antimicrobial and plant protecting bioactivities. Jointly, they reached proof-of-principle during a first project aimed to prepare for start-up foundation, and we submitted a patent describing this method and its use. Janita Toennissen from the Innovation Office of our University then supported us in applying for and eventually also securing financial support to validate our patent, allowing us to go the next step, namely from the lab to the field. We are in contact with a number of colleagues world-wide, alumnae such as Prof. Roberta Paulert in Brazil or partners from past projects such as Prof. Jatinder Kumar in India, who have the facilities and experience to perform field trials. In addition, we hope to be able to secure slots for field trials during next year's season with contract companies and research institutions offering these as a service. We are confident that these trials will eventually allow us to use our patented method as a strong basis for the foundation of greEnCAP, to bring relevant results of our decades-long research on bioactive chitosans into the market, to the benefit of society – and our planet.