Peptide Raw Materials for High Performance and Biodegradable Personal Care Products

在英国面临的许多环境挑战中，水污染一直处于最前沿。DEFRA 2021/22年度成果交付计划将通过清洁空气和水、减少废物、植物和陆地及海洋野生动物的繁荣来改善环境列为其优先成果。解决方案的一部分将是发展“循环生物经济”，其中我们对化石燃料的依赖将被消除。从废品中提取和回收资源，用作新产品的原料或能源。然而，个人护理产品，如Make-UP和洗发水将不可避免地打破这种循环经济，因为它们在使用结束时最终进入垃圾填埋场或废水。除了无法回收和再利用其化学成分外，许多此类产品还含有不可生物降解的化学物质，并在环境中持久存在。欧洲法规禁止在个人护理产品中使用某些有毒化学物质，因为它们会受到污染废水的影响。但是，有许多成分的效果是未知的或没有研究，导致缺乏技术创新，以应对这一挑战。化妆品已被使用在人类社会超过7000年，他们继续为许多人提供急需的自我护理的机会。不幸的是，化妆品中的许多化学物质不能简单地去除，因为它们提供了对用户重要的性能特性，如易于应用或穿着舒适度。我们的创新解决方案是用可生物降解的替代品（如肽）取代不可生物降解的化学成分。我们开发了新型专有肽，其性能优于工业化学品标准，为用户提供了易于应用、长佩戴时间和舒适性的最佳平衡，而不会影响可持续性。肽的生产可能具有挑战性，但我们已经开发出允许通过发酵进行生物生产和有效分离纯形式产品的方法。我们现在需要资金来扩大我们的工艺，以便与商业合作伙伴一起生产足够的肽。这不仅将证明用可生物降解的替代品取代环境持久性化学品的潜力，而且有望鼓励这一部门的更大创新。

Of the many environmental challenges we face in the UK, water pollution has been at the forefront in recent times. The DEFRA outcome delivery plan for 2021/22 lists the improvement of the environment through cleaner air and water, minimised waste, and thriving plants and terrestrial and marine wildlife first in its priority outcomes.Part of the solution will be to develop a 'circular bioeconomy' in which our dependence on fossil fuels for environmental growth is removed, and resources are extracted and recovered from waste products and used as ingredients in new products or as a source of energy.However, personal care products like make-up and shampoo will inevitably introduce a break in this circular economy as they end up in landfill or wastewater at the end of their use. In addition to there being no way of recovering and re-using their chemical ingredients, many of these products contain chemicals that are non-biodegradable and persist in the environment.European regulations prevent the use of certain toxic chemicals in personal care products, due to their impact on the environment from contaminated wastewater. But there are many ingredients for which the effect is unknown or not studied, resulting in a lack of technical innovations that address this challenge.Cosmetics have been used in human societies for over 7000 years and they continue to provide many people with a much-needed opportunity for self-care. Unfortunately, many of the chemicals in cosmetics cannot simply be removed as they give performance properties like ease of application or comfort to wear which are important to users. Consumers are then faced with a difficult choice between environmentally friendly products with poor performance or high-performance products with unknown environmental impact.Our innovative solution is to replace non-biodegradable chemical ingredients with biodegradable alternatives like peptides. We have developed novel, proprietary peptides that perform better than industrial chemical standards, providing the user with the optimal balance of ease of application, long wear time and comfort without compromising sustainability. Peptides can be challenging to produce, but we have developed methods that allow for bioproduction by fermentation and efficient isolation of the product in a pure form. We now need funding to scale our processes to make enough peptide for a launch product with a commercial partner. This will not only demonstrate the potential for replacing environmentally persistent chemicals with biodegradable alternatives, but hopefully encourage greater innovation in this sector.