Team:Tec-Chihuahua/Entrepreneurship
Overview
Our team is aware that bees are a fundamental organism for life as we know it, both in the environmental sphere and in nutrition. However, we have noticed that there are many diseases that attack the bees in the different stages of their life, which involve economic losses of thousands of dollars per year in each country since most of these are not treated correctly. We try to break the barrier between the beekeeping industry and synthetic biology through a product that meets all the needs of beekeepers, it is not harmful to the environment and is available to everyone.
In Mexico there are no specific products to combat the two diseases that we study, and the methods to eradicate them are very severe or are preserved in the products derived from bees, which directly harms the economy of the apiculture industry. Our product favors the economy of beekeepers because besides reducing losses, is an endogenous product of bees, so it does not affect the composition of their products.
4 Steps to Effective Customer Problem Solving
Client
Our client is the beekeeper that focuses in the caregiving and massive production of hives, for the national and international sale of products such as honey and its derivatives. These are of high importance for the Mexican economy, not only for the export of honey products but also because of the link between pollinating bees and the agriculture of the country. However, this industry does not receive the attention it deserves, because there are many illnesses that attack them and very few companies that dedicate themselves to prevent or treat them, or even to the development of research about it and how these illnesses affect the world’s economy.
The methods currently used to treat infected hives are antibiotics not specialized in diseases and the hive burning. The method by antibiotics is very controversial since the residues of antibiotics can infiltrate in the final products marketed like honey and propolis. As a consequence, the use of antibiotics has been banned in several countries because of the long-term effects that this could have on the health of consumers.
The current universally accepted method is the destruction and burning of the hive, however, the process ends in multimillion-dollar losses to the beekeeping community.
Problem
The American Foulbrood is an illness caused by a pathogenic bacterium called Paenibacillus larvae, which can be found globally and infects the hives. A single colony of the hive with the infection unrestrained will suffer a significative loss of larvae. Without the new litter to replace the elder workers, the entire colony will be in danger and will probably die. However, some colonies are strong enough to recover from the loss. Besides, there are some colonies, like the colonies of South America or the Africanized bees that can resist the infection of the pathogen. This phenomenon has the characteristic that this colonies usually produce a bigger amount of propolis when compared to the honey bees of Europe.
The European Foulbrood is an illness caused by the pathogenic bacterium, Gram-positive, called Melissococcus plutonius that affects the bee larvae. The genetic resistance of some bee species to the illness allows them to overcome the infections without suffering severe damages. However, it must be mentioned that it generally has a better forecast than the American Foulbrood, in some zones, the European Foulbrood has an even more malignant manifestation, damaging severely even the strong colonies of bees.1
EFB affects mainly the unsealed babies, which can kill the larvae generally when they are 4 to 5 days old. The infected larvae move around the breeding cell, and instead of the regular rolled position, the larvae die displaced in their cell, twisted around the walls or stretched out. The color of the larvae changes from white to yellow, then brown and finally, when they decompose, black. If a big portion of the larvae dies, the patron of raising seems irregular and sometimes sends an unpleasant or sour smell.2
References
- Formato G., Menegotto A., & Jannoni-Sebastianini R. (2012). Loque europea. Retrieved April 12, 2018, from http://teca.fao.org/es/technology/loque-europea
- Forsgren, E. (2009, December 21). European foulbrood in honey bees. Retrieved April 12, 2018, from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jip.2009.06.016
Hypothesis
Our product will be a liquid mixture of antimicrobial peptide extracts that will eradicate European foulbrood and American foulbrood, this treatment will be applied in bee bread with the intention that this food reaches infected larvae. As a company, we firmly believe that with this we will achieve the highest quality standards in the product and with this achieve high sales levels a year around the world.
Solution
This product is intended to be a treatment that will improve the immune system of bees to make them more resistant to American foulbrood and European foulbrood of infected hives. This will be achieved by placing our antimicrobial peptides in PLGA nanocapsules, forming a kind of powder solution that will be placed in the liquid food of the hives, usually composed of water with sugar. Showing our product in different editions of sizes, suitable for the client's convenience.
Canvas Model
SWOT Analysis
Customer Feedback
Experts Guidance
Business Plan
Company Projection
Innovation Week
This was an event held by the Chihuahua Innova program, which is developed by elements of the State of Chihuahua on May 21th and 22th, 2018. During the first day, ten speakers presented, which gave lectures on fundamental topics for Entrepreneurship and new companies. Exhibitors of all kinds participated, some were founders of innovative companies, others were government workers and some were experts in business creation and development.
We attend these conferences in order to learn more about the area of entrepreneurship and all that entails the creation of a business plan, because although we had already started with ours, our knowledge was practically null about how to do it, so we hoped that this event would provide us with key factors, ideas and basic knowledge required to make our business plan, we wanted to learn more about the business world and meet important people in that area.
This activity was very helpful because, first of all, because in this event we met important people, such as the IMPI Research Coordinator, and some important people from the Government, as well, we got to know important issues such as innovation, the development of patents and its process, the support provided by the government to entrepreneurs. During this activity I learned about the types of patents that exist, how to apply, the price and the duration of these, I also learned to sell an idea in the right way and the best way to create digital marketing.
This event was very helpful as a guide to continue with the creation of our company since it provided us with knowledge and resources that were fundamental to understanding the business world.
Training Day
In order to celebrate the biotechnologist day, the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Chihuahua campus decided to hold an event called "Training Day", during the event, a conference was given with the name "5 steps to undertake biotech", the speaker of the conference was Larissa Uribe Marioni, co-founder of Diagtech, a Molecular Research and Diagnostic Center dedicated to the detection of specific genetic indicators for the prevention of the development of diseases based on genes, as well as research and development of new diagnostic methods.
This conference, as its name says, told us about the 5 most important points to undertake in the biotechnology area; find a real problem, generate a scalable idea, contemplate and find the right infrastructure, seek the help of mentors and experts in biotechnology, and finally, choose a good team.
These 5 steps should be considered in their entirety to achieve a successful biotechnology company, so for us, it was very helpful for the development of our company's business plan, and it helped us maintain contact with Larissa and her team. work, who were of great support for the development of our activities in the area.
Thanks to the knowledge we acquired, we were able to give a better approach to our business plan, because we could better understand the operation of companies in the biotechnology area, and we were able to understand the difference between a company in any other area and a biotechnology company.
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