We all know melanin as the pigment naturally found in our bodies that’s responsible for giving our skin, hair and eyes a darker shade. But over the years, scientists have pointed out that melanin can do so much more: from improving the efficiency of sunscreens thanks to its light-absorption capabilities, to taking full advantage of its color to use it as a natural dye.

The only downside? It’s not easy (nor cheap!) to produce: the most common way to obtain natural melanin is to extract it from sepia ink or bird feathers, which makes it hardly scalable and non-vegan. On the other hand, the cost of a vial of chemically synthesized melanin starts at 700 euro per gram; that’s 10x more expensive than the price of gold!

To put a solution to this problem, a new Barcelona-based company OXYCO has been created. OXYCO is able to produce melanin through biocatalysis -that is, by using enzymes, proteins found in Nature that have the ability to catalyze different chemical reactions.

Thanks to this biobased production style, OXYCO’s biomelanin is totally vegan, soluble and its properties can be adjusted to specific needs.

A chance discovery

Behind OXYCO stand two experts in the field of enzyme discovery and design: Maria Fátima Lucas, CEO of ZYMVOL BIOMODELING, and Nikola Lončar, CEO of GECCO BIOTECH. It was actually in GECCO’s lab where the biomelanin was first produced.

“It all started with a new set of enzymes we had just found: the first time we grew microbes to produce them, we were surprised with the resulting dark color of fermentation media. Once we were able to understand the reaction mechanism, it became clear that we had found a fermentative melanin production process”.

Nikola Lončar, CEO of GECCO Biotech

Since then, Nikola and his team have performed instrumental analysis of the produced biomelanin and confirmed it has identical structure to the natural melanin isolated from sepia. “It is a stable compound and mixes well in creams, which makes it a great ingredient for different products”, he adds.

Due to its novel nature and diversity of applications, the OXYCO team believes industries like Personal Care, Food & Beverages, and even Nanotechnology can be the most benefited by this new bio-pigment.

“Just imagine the possibilities: with biomelanin as an ingredient, we could have sunscreens that are high-protection & sea-friendly; or produce more sustainable semiconductors with natural materials. It’s a completely new market, and the potential is huge ”.

Maria Fátima Lucas, CEO and co-founder at ZYMVOL

We’re still not halfway through 2022, but at ZYMVOL we’ve already gone through many changes, worked on some new innovative projects and experienced lots and lots of growth. 

This reality has become especially apparent regarding our physical workspace: with new additions to the team, student secondments and our eyes set on expanding through new markets, we needed to explore (and finally settle in) new locations.

From incubated startup to established deeptech company

After almost 3 years located in the MediaTic Building, at the heart of Barcelona’s 22@ district, our ZYMVOL headquarters have now moved to Pau Claris 94, right at the city center. The new offices are just 5 minutes away from the Passeig de Gracia metro station and from Plaça Catalunya. 

“Despite having many of our team members working remote or hybrid, we still wanted to choose a space that we could feel comfortable in and would be of easy access to those who might not live nearby, with good connections by train”.

Ena Bhalla, Admin Manager at ZYMVOL

Most importantly, this change of offices marks a new chapter for our company. We’ve gone from being an incubated start-up at Barcelona Activa’s Incubator, in the MediaTic Building, to fully-fledged deeptech company of 5 years, able to stand on its own.

This wouldn’t have been possible without the help of Barcelona Activa, who kindly accommodated us in their incubator for high-impact tech startups, and who have played a key role in helping us grow into the company we now are.

Boston, a hub for R&D companies

For our second location, we travelled all the way across the Atlantic. After giving our first steps towards the North American market in early 2021, we can now say we’ve officially established ourselves in CIC-One Broadway, in Cambridge, MA, happy to continue bringing on enzyme innovation to the US market.

Dennis Hutchison, President of ZYMVOL Inc, will be the main responsible of the North American office. In March 2021, Dennis joined the team with the goal of helping ZYMVOL create and implement its strategy to enter the US market.

“In the last year, ZYMVOL has proven that it can undertake challenging projects, with successful results, while continually enhancing its technology to remain at the fore-front of innovation. I’m very excited to be part of this expansion, and eager to provide new solutions to our clients”.

Dennis Hutchison, President, Zymvol Inc.

ZYMVOL’s expansion through the US market comes as a natural response to its recent growth as a company. It has gone from being an only service-based company to also developing its own set of products (e.g. Alcohol dehydrogenases, Peroxygenases), as well as updating its ZYMEVOLVER technology to include new features and fine-tune its properties.

While the need for greener chemical processes keeps rising around the world, ZYMVOL’s computational enzyme discovery and engineering technology has proven to be a powerful ally in providing industrial biocatalysts that are both effective and sustainable.

“We believe the US market holds a lot of opportunities for new computational enzyme design & discovery campaigns, with its high number of life sciences, biotech, and overall research-focused companies. It’s an amazing opportunity and we’re looking forward to making the most of it”.

Maria Fátima Lucas, CEO and co-founder at ZYMVOL

At ZYMVOL we’ve joined forces with biochemical company CYGYC BIOCON, through its BIOKATAL brand, to develop a new generation of sustainable detergents. The project, which has received funding from ACCIÓ’s Tecniospring INDUSTRY programme, aims to improve the performance of enzymes in detergent formulations to facilitate a transition towards more eco-friendly household solutions.

Most detergent formulations contain enzymes, which are catalytic proteins used to eliminate different types of stains. For the formulation to work properly, enzymes must be deactivated or in a very low activity state, and only activated once they come into contact with water.

This is especially important when it comes to proteases, an enzyme type that tends to degrade all other enzymes in detergent formulas. To maintain them in the mentioned low activity state when the detergent is not being used or under storage conditions, they need to be deactivated with what are known as «inhibitors».

Currently, the majority of protease inhibitors used in detergents are compounds based in boron.

Despite these inhibitors complying with strict European laws, they can still have a negative impact on the environment due to its toxicity towards some types of plants and insects. That’s why CYGYC BIOCON is committed to further improving the sustainability of its product line by eliminating the need for boron-based inhibitors.

«With this project we continue working to offer ecological and sustainable washing solutions. This brings us a little closer to the milestone of obtaining environmentally neutral impact detergents»

Dr. Sergi Abad, Biotechnology Technical Manager at CYGYC BIOCON

By combining CYGYC BIOCON’s extensive experience in detergent formulations and ZYMVOL’s enzyme engineering know-how, both companies expect their innovation to lead to a much less contaminating solution that affects every household.

Sustainable Detergents powered by Technology

Under the name IDEA-PS: Inhibition of Detergent Enzymes Advanced Prediction Software, the project will consist in the development of a new computational platform – named ZYMEVOLVER-iDET – capable of identifying new, sustainable enzyme inhibitors for detergent formulations.

Dr. Brian Jimenez-Garcia, Senior Researcher at ZYMVOL, will be the primary investigator leading this project.

«By applying ZYMVOL’s technology, we expect to find inhibitors that can substitute the boron-based ones with greener alternatives. We hope that with this software, we will be able to help scientists make more effective formulations that will save resources, energy and water»

Dr. Brian Jimenez-Garcia, Senior Researcher at ZYMVOL

With the support of Tecniospring INDUSTRY, a programme powered by the Catalan Agency for Business Competitiveness (ACCIÓ), the IDEA-PS project has an established duration of 2 years and expects to achieve the first results by the end of 2022.

Thanks to this innovation, both CYGYC BIOCON and ZYMVOL calculate they can achieve a significant decrease in the environmental footprint of current detergents.