By Katie Trapp, Web Editor
Sometimes it does indeed take a village.
North Carolina has supplied a number of resources that first brought a man down from Iowa, and then gave his business idea the chance to grow into a promising biotechnology start-up.
Working as a post-doc in Oklahoma State University's biochemistry department, David Brigham knew how beneficial spider silk could be to the textiles industry. He also knew that over the last 20 years scientists had struggled in vain to produce spider silk on a large scale. “They’ve known for centuries that spiders produce superior silk, they just couldn't collect enough to be useful.” Brigham said.
Spider silk is an organic fiber that is light, incredibly elastic and tougher than Kevlar. Because of these properties, spider silk has many potential military, industrial and medical uses. However, spiders can't be domesticated for large-scale silk production: spiders eat each other, they bite, and more importantly, they only spin a few milligrams each. Silkworms, however, spin as much as a gram, or more than a kilometer of fiber per cocoon.
Brigham has discovered how to transfer the spider’s production gene into the common silk worm, creating the means for large scale, inexpensive spider silk production and creating multiple new market opportunities based on the application of this fiber.
“Switching from being an academic to an entrepreneur meant I had to learn a lot of new things quickly and North Carolina is perfect for that,” Brigham said. “There are a lot of resources here and they really helped keep us on steady ground until we were able to do it on our own.”
He put the idea on the shelf and took a job writing the biotechnology curriculum for the Iowa community college system. The NC BioNetwork then offered him twice the salary to do the same job for the North Carolina Community College system.
Seeing all the resources the state’s biotechnology industry offered, Brigham took his business idea off the back burner and EntoGenetics was born.
“Switching from being an academic to an entrepreneur meant I had to learn a lot of new things quickly and North Carolina is perfect for that,” Brigham said. “There are a lot of resources here and they really helped keep us on steady ground until we were able to do it on our own.”
His first stop was the North Carolina Small Business and Technology Development Center, based out of UNC-Charlotte. They referred him to the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. It was here that he was awarded a start-up loan and introduced to contacts in the Duke MBA program’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Three graduate students joined the EntoGenetics team, all with varying, but valuable backgrounds.
Jonathan Gibbs and Mark Smallwood are both MBA candidates at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, are partial owners, and play business development roles for the company. Gibbs has a background in high tech and Internet start-ups and currently works for a local venture capital firm. Smallwood’s background is in supply chain and operations management with a background working in the defense industry.
Gautham Pandiyan came on board shortly after. He has the biomedical background and entrepreneurial business development experience, as well as knowledge in patenting and licensing.
Brigham quit his job at the BioNetwork three years ago and started working full-time with EntoGenetics. Within the next year he hopes to have the Duke students as full-time employees, once they finish their degrees. “I'm glad I have these Duke MBAs working with me because I’m still mostly a scientist. They understand the business and keep me on track as I learn a new career. We also have an incredible extended network through Duke University,” he said.
Spider silk can be used for ballistic bullet proof vests, rope, parachutes, fine fabrics, medical sutures, ligament replacement and reinforced tires.
The military is one of EntoGenetics’ primary markets, as spider silk is a lighter, tougher and more elastic replacement for Kevlar in bullet proof vests, as well as the technical fibers currently found in ropes and parachutes. Spider silk is also a lighter replacement for Kevlar and other technical fibers in reinforced tires used in NASCAR car tires and Humvee tires.
“The bullet-proof vest application is our primary target as there is an urgent and quantifiable need for such a product that offers soldiers more flexibility without sacrificing protection,” Pandiyan said.
“Spider silk is not stronger, but tougher, so it can stop more at an impact,” Brigham added.
Competitors like Kevlar and Spectra are very good fibers, stronger than spider silk but very inelastic, and only stretch two or three percent before they snap. Spider silk is much tougher so it can withstand a much larger impact. It can dissipate more energy than the others can. And that can make it superior in bullet proof body armor and clothing.
“Other competing fibers have higher costs, are more hazardous to make, and are not environmentally friendly,” said Jonathan Gibbs.
Last year, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center awarded a $25,000 Business Development Loan to EntoGenetics.
“When we first met David and EntoGenetics over a year ago, they were an obscure biotech company in Charlotte struggling to generate much attention,” said Yonnie Butler, business development director for the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. “We worked with David and ended up making a $25,000 investment to help the company with inception-related activities as we saw potential in their technology.”
“We remain excited about the company, and the momentum generated over the past year should position them to secure additional funding to execute on their spider silk development program,” Butler said.
EntoGenetics competed and won two contests for start-up companies this year, both in April, bringing in additional funding and services.
The company competed in the Duke Start-up Challenge, which gives students the opportunity to gain valuable entrepreneurship experience by participating in all aspects of building a business. The contest awards more than $45,000 in cash and prizes. EntoGenetics not only won the consumer products and services category, but also the overall competition, bringing in $20,000 in cash and $5,000 in services.
EntoGenetics also entered the Five Ventures Conference, a competition for early-stage, high-growth businesses, presented by the Charlotte Research Institute. They won the student/nonprofit division and took home $15,000 in services.
“The win at Five Ventures got us a lot of in-kind services like branding, Web design, a lot more contacts, and some notoriety at venture capital firms,” Brigham said.
“Our long-term plan is to be a bioengineering company that produces a variety of fabrics of differential qualities that fulfill the needs of many different sectors – meanwhile improving and saving lives,” Gibbs said.
To create their spider silk, they have a synthetic gene technologically-developed on a DNA sequencing machine. Then they put it together in the lab for transformation into a silk worm.
The EntoGenetics lab is located in Charlotte. It’s a small, custom-built lab, but enough to get them going. “We’re going to have to move into larger facilities to go into full production,” Brigham said. “But Bill Gates, Apple and Hewlett Packard all started in their garages too, so small labs are OK!”
The company is already in negotiations to move to a larger facility – another contact made through the Biotechnology Center.
If possible, EntoGenetics plans to keep its operations in North Carolina.
“North Carolina is a very biotech-friendly place, besides being a wonderful place to live with all the intellectual infrastructure. There are a lot of reasons to be here doing this.”
For more information about EntoGenetics, contact David Brigham at dbrigham@entogenetics.com