To “grow” ink from natural bacteria - and not from petrochemical by-products, full of toxic pigments that are difficult to recycle – this is the challenge that PILI Biotech has taken on. The young start-up that has already produced a “proof of concept”. Now, the company is working hard to raise 700,000 euros, which would make it possible to move from prototype phase towards preparing for industrial production.

“Today, most of the colorants are petrochemical and have a disastrous environmental impact”, explained Thomas Landrain, one of the company’s three co-founders. “Yet there are other processes we can choose, such as biological synthesis by fermentation. Living organisms know how to synthesize complex molecules. Like with beer production, where the yeast is formed on a substrate, we can opt for bacteria that are natural organisms, especially the Streptomyces. We use microorganisms’ ability to secrete colorants. It takes just a few days, at 25 to 30 °C, without any need for heating”.

Moving to London

The three partners (Thomas Landrain, Jérémie Blache and Marie-Sarah Adenis) have already mastered five colorants; primary colors that can be mixed together to broaden the range of options. Since winning the last Génopole biotechnology competition in 2014, the small team has left La Paillasse, a shared lab in Paris, to settle temporarily in the suburb of Evry, where they can benefit from Génopole’s ecosystem, equipment and expertise. The team plans to move to London, to be closer to its new investors, in particular a British public fund. The goal is to produce high-quality “pre-pilot” inks by the end of 2016. The team is almost finished with “garage experiments”. Before founding the biotech firm, Thomas Landrain tested his ideas not in a scientific lab but in a squat in Vitry-sur-Seine, a town south of Paris.

Who could be the potential clients for this biodegradable ink? A first R&D partnership has been signed with a major ballpoint pen manufacturer. It would be its first “organic” ink-pen. This summer, the start-up tested “home-made” liquid ink in a standard Epson printer, with good results, “a world premiere”. At the same time, other tests are targeting textile printing, with bacteria growing directly on the fabric and forming original and repeated patterns.

The product could also draw interest among printing or packaging companies, but the market studies still need to be refined. “Large-scale production at a reasonable cost - this is our challenge”, added Jérémie Blache, a former student from Toulouse Business School, who previously worked in an investment bank. The stakes are high: PILI wants to produce natural ink at 1,000 euros per kilo - that’s 4 to 10 times less than the current estimate. Synthetic petrochemical colorants are much cheaper, with prices ranging from 10 to 50 euros per kilo. As for intellectual property, the team doesn’t want to lock its invention with patents. “Open source is at the center of our approach”, outlined the “biohacker” Thomas Landrain. “We want to keep sharing with the community, to develop the understanding of our technology and partnerships with outside players”.

dfainsilber@lesechos.fr

For more information: http://www.pili.bio/

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