Team:ITESM-Guadalajara/Company

THE COMPANY

Mission

Biophrame Technologies is a Mexican biotech company and manufacturer specialized in the innovation and development of new technologies based on synthetic biology. The aim of Biophrame is to make industrial processes easier, more economical and environmentally friendly; that’s why our first product is the biological production process of chitosan, a natural fiber derived from chitin with multiple industrial applications.

Description

Biophrame Technologies focuses in innovating, developing and improving technologies based on synthetic biology to create optimized and sustainable industrial processes, which can guarantee quality products for our customers.

We believe the biotechnology we develop can help us not only to optimize time and resources, but also to take care of the environment and improve the lives in our community, both regional and global.

The first Biophrame technologies’ innovation is the “Non-Chemical Chitosan production process”, which is productive, cost effective and waste reductive. This process consist in the biological transformation of the chitin (a natural component of the exoskeletons of crustaceans) present in the raw material shrimp shell (which is an abundant material found in Mexico and is considered an industrial waste of the shrimp industry) using different bacterial fermentations and temperature changes to generate a valuable product called Chitosan, without the use of any toxic chemical substances.

Chitosan is a natural fiber product derived from chitin with multiple applications in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, water treatment, textile finishing, food, cosmetics, pulp and paper, photography and tissue engineering, due to its excellent biocompatibility, biodegradability, non-toxicity, physical stability and processability properties (Raafat & Sahl, 2009).

The product we market is the result of a biological process that we designed using a genetically modified organism, which is productive, cost effective and waste reductive. In our process we use, as raw material, Shrimp shell (which is considered as an industrial waste of the Shrimp mexican industry) to generate a valuable product called Chitosan from the chitin found in this material. This process is achieved using different fermentations with bacteria; where, the behavior of these bacteria is controlled by induced temperature changes, guaranteeing no chemical use in the process.

We are strategically located in Guadalajara, the second most populated city in Mexico and responsible for 7% of national gross domestic product (GDP). Our short term goal is to fulfill the Mexican demand of medium and high purity Chitosan, and to become the first Mexican exporter of high purity Chitosan. We want to create dream jobs for young Mexican engineers and export our biotechnology worldwide.