Entrepreneurship

Introduction

From the very beginning, we set out to approach our project not only as scientists, but also as entrepreneurs. We treated our idea like the foundation of a start-up: engaging stakeholders, testing assumptions, and building a pathway to bring our solution from the lab into the real world.

The Challenge and The Market

Our journey began with a search for a meaningful problem to solve in our surroundings.
We identified Arsenophonus phytopathogenicus, a bacterial infection with no rapid or accessible diagnostic tools available, as a critical issue in agriculture. Current detection relies on qPCR, which is performed in laboratories and is both time-consuming and costly. For an industry already under intense economic pressure, this diagnostic gap is a significant barrier. We saw an opportunity to step in and address this issue.
The current situation of uncontrolled spreading and ongoing research opens the door to potential collaboration with government institutions that are conducting large-scale mapping studies. If we could establish a collaboration, we could guarantee the sale of large numbers of tests to support the mapping studies, providing an easier market entry point and eliminating the need to rely solely on direct-to-customer distribution.

The Idea

During our studies, we explored the unique capabilities of the Cas protein family. While they are most widely known for their role in gene editing, we learned that Cas proteins also have great potential as highly sensitive, DNA-specific diagnostic tools, especially the Cas12a family. One key advantage is the programmability of the system: simply changing the CRISPR-RNA (crRNA) allows the same protein to detect a wide range of targets.
This insight became the foundation of our project. Our goal was to utilize the potential of CRISPR/Cas12a to develop a diagnostic device for Arsenophonus phytopathogenicus. This solution would have immediate agricultural value and broader potential for translation from academia to industry.

Financing the Vision

As the very first iGEM team from our university, we started without a ny established structure, and most importantly without any budget – not even to cover the competition fees. This put us in the same situation that many start-ups face at the beginning: we had a promising idea, but no resources to carry it out.

To overcome this challenge, we reached out to affected stakeholders, field experts, and industry representatives to present our idea and gather feedback. Encouraged by their positive responses and the confirmation that our concept had real potential, we formed a dedicated fundraising team and began pitching to potential sponsors.

Reach Out Strategy

Our outreach strategy combined our university's network and industry connections with targeted communication materials, such as the SwissCas flyer. By tailoring our message to scientific, industrial, and public audiences, we maximized stakeholder engagement. We obtained additional background information on our human practices, general feedback from experts on the idea itself, and the opportunity to pitch the idea to secure funding for the project's realization.

Pitching Strategy

In the event of positive responses from potential sponsors, we scheduled appointments, either online or in person, to present our idea and vision to them. For this purpose, the fundraising team used the base pitch presentation, making slight adjustments for each sponsor to demonstrate engagement and highlight the benefits that the corresponding sponsor would receive from such a test.

Fundraising Successes

Thanks to our efforts, we successfully raised over $40,000, which covered all competition fees and enabled us to conduct our laboratory experiments. Additionally, we received in-kind support worth over $10,000 in consumables, significantly reducing our operational costs. Beyond financial support, however, our sponsors provided invaluable industry feedback and insights from leading global agricultural companies, strengthening the foundation of our project.

Preparing for the Future

With our finances secured and our laboratory work underway, we embraced another key element of entrepreneurship: thinking beyond iGEM. To explore the long-term potential of our solution, we developed a business model to determine how our idea could evolve into a viable venture after the competition. To that end, we created a Business Model Canvas:

Keeping our business model canvas in mind, we identified the key strengths and weaknesses of our potential venture.

Strengths:

• No alternative rapid testing product currently on the market
• Modular design of the CRISPR/Cas12a complex allows easy adaptation to other pathogens
• Strong relationships with stakeholders and industry experts formed during iGEM

Weaknesses:

• No viable prototype yet; technology still in development phase
• Use of CRISPR/Cas12a for detection is covered by existing patents, meaning licensing may be necessary

Although there is great potential in this field due to low competition, there are also some hurdles to overcome. The main hurdle we identified is intellectual property.

Intellectual Property and Licensing Considerations

A critical step in bringing our project to life is considering the intellectual property (IP) landscape. The CRISPR/Cas12a technology underlying our diagnostics is not in the public domain; the University of California holds patents on its collateral cleavage-based detection mechanism (DETECTR) and has licensed them exclusively to Mammoth Biosciences. These patents have been granted in the United States (e.g., US10253365 and US11118224), and corresponding applications are pending in Europe (e.g., EP3714050). The claims are broad and cover the use of Cas12a collateral cleavage for detection in any biological sample.

While our academic use within iGEM is unrestricted, commercialization would likely require a license. For a startup, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity:

• Challenge: Any product launch based on Cas12a collateral cleavage requires negotiation with existing IP holders.
• Opportunity: Licensing is often structured by "field of use." Agriculture may be an exception where a dedicated startup could obtain rights more easily and cheaply than in human diagnostics.

At the same time, our project creates opportunities for new intellectual property. Our pathogen-specific crRNA designs and our unique AuNP "cut-to-release" readout format could be the foundation for new patents. By combining an awareness of existing IP with a strategy to generate our own, we are taking a realistic, entrepreneurial approach to developing this technology for agricultural diagnostics.

Summary

Our entrepreneurial journey has taught us that transforming a laboratory idea into a practical solution requires more than just good science. It requires vision, persistence, collaboration with the community it seeks to serve, and an understanding of the complex domain of intellectual property. By thinking like entrepreneurs, we established a foundation that will carry our project forward long after the competition ends.