Recently, the international ergothioneine raw material supplier—GeneIII, was selected for the China Brand Innovation Development Project and was successfully chosen as the synthetic biology industry partner for CCTV’s “Quality China” program.
In just two years, GeneIII achieved the cGMP pharmaceutical-grade mass production of high-purity ergothioneine, a potent antioxidant raw material that was once as valuable as gold, making it accessible to the public. Simultaneously, the company participated in the formulation of the first industry group standard in China, leveraging its technological strength to establish a standardized foundation for the development of related industries. Based in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, GeneIII relies on innovation in core technological areas and a mature industrial production system to lead in the field of synthetic biology. It has become not only the largest producer of ergothioneine internationally but also holds over twenty original patented technologies, positioning itself as a leading enterprise at the forefront of the industry, driving the upgrade and development of a series of related industries in the wave of technological innovation in the synthetic biology sector.
“To be a truly competitive enterprise with core competencies that can lead the future development of the industry.” This is howWei Ding, the founder and chairman of GeneIII, described the company’s vision.
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In just two years, becoming the world’s largest producer of high-purity ergothioneine
Leading in quality, capacity, and cost
Currently, synthetic biology has become a recognized new track in the industry and is hailed as leading the “Third Bio-Technology Revolution.” As a pinnacle of human scientific exploration into the material world, synthetic biology has evolved from its embryonic stage to being able to mass-produce a variety of active substance raw materials, thus serving an entire industry, within just a decade.
While the development history of synthetic biology is not long, it is widely optimistic. According to relevant data, synthetic biology is now widely used in many sectors including medical health, chemical industry, energy, materials, food consumption, beauty and skincare, and agriculture. It is estimated that 60% of future products can be manufactured through synthetic biology production. In May last year, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the heavyweight “14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Biological Economy,” which clearly stated that the biological economy, including synthetic biology, is a new driving force for China’s economic transformation in the future.
“This is a new field full of infinite imagination. In theory, various substances can be replaced synthetically. Of course, the premise of whether they can be replaced or not is that the quality must be better, and the cost must be lower. If this can be achieved, it will be a good commercial alternative.” Wei Ding said.
Just as the “youthfulness” of the synthetic biology industry’s track, GeneIII, established only two years ago, is striving forward on the path of “embracing the new.” In September 2021, GeneIII was founded in Nanjing. In just two years, with synthetic biology technology, GeneIII successfully extracted the cell mitochondrial-level super antioxidant – ergothioneine. It was the first in the industry to achieve the cGMP pharmaceutical-grade mass production of ergothioneine with a raw material purity of 99.97%, establishing itself as a leading global supplier of ergothioneine raw materials. Moreover, it continues to promote the market application of ergothioneine. At the recent Synthetic Biology Industry Innovation Forum, GeneIII stood out from 35,000 target companies and was selected for the first “Synthetic Biology Industry Value List” in China. “In these two years, we have reduced the cost of ergothioneine by 90% using synthetic biology methods, achieving comprehensive leadership in quality, capacity, and cost.” Ding Wei explained.
In recent years, ergothioneine has gained significant popularity in the field of health. Public data shows that ergothioneine is a natural strong antioxidant. Its discovery dates back over a hundred years, with the first extraction from ergot fungus as a natural antioxidant in 1909. It has since been found to exist in fungi such as Ganoderma lucidum and matsutake. Research has shown that ergothioneine can enter cell mitochondria, exhibiting antioxidant effects more than six times that of astaxanthin and twenty times that of Coenzyme Q10, making it an ideal anti-aging ingredient. In addition, ergothioneine also plays a role in whitening, radiation protection, and anti-inflammatory effects. In 2014, ergothioneine was officially included in the “Catalog of Used Cosmetic Raw Materials.”
In fact, many companies worldwide have been trying to produce ergothioneine using synthetic biology technology in recent years. GeneIII is just one of them. In this emerging field, GeneIII’s ability to “take off” in just two years is seen as a “touchstone” for the company’s core competitiveness in synthetic biology. “We found that to truly establish commercial competitiveness, it’s not about running a hundred meters sprint but a 4×100-meter relay race, meaning four-stage relay. Editing the bacterial genes is just the first stage; fermentation, purification, and industrial-scale production are the subsequent stages. All four capabilities are essential.” Wei Ding explained.
Wei Ding explained that the so-called “end-to-end” process is like a relay race spanning four industrialized production stages, including bacterial gene editing and modification, fermentation, purification, and engineering-scale production. Specifically, it begins with strain construction technology, using gene editing to “encode” the ergothioneine gene into the bacterial chromosome and efficiently biosynthesize it, forming engineered bacteria. Qualified engineered bacteria serve as “seeds” and undergo a series of fermentation optimization processes including sterile inoculation, fermentation, crude extraction, fine extraction, liquid-phase separation, and efficacy evaluation. The fermentation products are then extracted, and strict control is maintained over the raw material crystals, quality, and purity of ergothioneine, achieving a purity of 99.97% for the raw materials. Finally, engineering-scale production is carried out based on cGMP pharmaceutical-grade production platforms.
“In Wei Ding’s view, truly capable synthetic biology companies must excel in all four areas, and none can be lacking. Although there are many emerging companies in the field of synthetic biology, few are able to fully complete the “end-to-end” chain and run the “4×100-meter relay,” constructing a full-chain engineering production system. “Professional synthetic biology companies must achieve balanced development in all four areas. GeneIII has set out to become a specialized and efficient company in the field of synthetic biology from the outset, making simultaneous progress in the construction of capabilities in all four areas. This is what truly constitutes a competitive synthetic biology company.”
Today, relying on the synthetic biology technology of the research and development team, GeneIII has mastered the purification processing capacity of 20-ton fermentation tanks, with a monthly production capacity exceeding 3 tons. This data comparison is more intuitive – Ganoderma contains 80 mg/kg of ergothioneine, with an annual output of 500 kg per mu, containing 40 g of ergothioneine; a 20-ton fermentation tank produces 40 kg of ergothioneine, equivalent to planting 1000 mu of Ganoderma.
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Seizing the opportunity of talent policies for development with the principle of “people first, matters later”
Exercising extreme craftsmanship, researching fine products round the clock
Located in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, GeneIII fully utilizes the scientific research advantages of local universities, adhering to the principle of “people first, matters later,” and continuously enriching its talent team and integrating external scientific research institute resources to form a competitive barrier for its research and development capabilities.
Regarding why Nanjing was chosen as the base for GeneIII, Wei Ding said that Nanjing has a high density of universities, with a continuous stream of scientific research talents. The government has also introduced many targeted talent policies, providing comprehensive support for science and technology enterprises to root and develop. Currently, 60% of the company’s employees hold doctoral or master’s degrees.
In September of this year, Nanjing announced to the public the “Action Plan for Building a High-Level Talent Agglomeration Platform as the Overall Guiding and Fully Promoting the New Era Talent Strong City Construction (2023-2025)” and the “7 Policies for Key Industrial Talents.” This comprehensive upgrade of the talent policy system is aimed at the forefront of science and technology and the high-level talents needed for scientific and technological innovation and industrial development. It directly transforms Nanjing’s abundant scientific and educational resources into advantages for high-quality enterprise development.
Riding the wave of Nanjing’s talent strong city support leading industrial strong city construction, GeneIII has also firmly established itself and grown rapidly within two years. Wei Ding introduced that in the 0-1 entrepreneurial stage, GeneIII takes “learning ability, innovation ability, teamwork ability, result orientation, and self-drive” as the criteria for selecting talents, attracting talents who share the same values to join the company. In actual business operations, core talent positions lead by example, focusing on results. Guided by such values, teams collaborate closely, fully mobilize resources, and rapidly achieve technological breakthroughs and personnel growth.
“Products are the works.” This was the tone set by Wei Ding, the founder of GeneIII, at the company’s inception. Wei Ding explained that to achieve breakthroughs in the industry, the company’s R&D team has shown a spirit of daring to tackle difficult problems, working tirelessly 24/7 with a three-shift system, dedicating themselves to R&D work throughout the entire chain, tackling a series of technical challenges in fermentation, purification, and mass production of ergothioneine. For two years, from upstream bacterial strain construction, biological fermentation, separation and purification, to industrial-scale production, product efficacy evaluation, and market application, GeneIII has always adhered to a scientific, rigorous, and professional craftsmanship spirit, only to refine truly excellent product quality. With the production capacity, quality, and cost advantages of ergothioneine, GeneIII successfully added self-developed ergothioneine to its skincare brand HA&EGT, with an addition of over 1000PPM, which is 50-100 times that of international luxury brands.
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“Gold Price” Ergothioneine Becomes Affordable, Benefiting the Masses
The Value of Technology Trends Towards Serving the Public
For end consumers, the accessibility of a product may entirely depend on its cost and price threshold. Due to its significant antioxidant effects, wide range of applications, and synergistic effects when combined with other ingredients, ergothioneine has been favored by many brands both domestically and internationally, making it one of the hottest active ingredients today. However, for a long time, due to its complex extraction process and high cost, ergothioneine was only added to skincare products by top-tier international brands, earning it the nickname “new noble” or “gold price.”
Before 2017, ergothioneine could only be extracted from rare fungi. Data shows that one pound of fresh Ganoderma contains only 40mg of ergothioneine, leading to prices soaring to over 30 million USD per kilogram. With the development of synthetic biology technology, by last year, the price of ergothioneine had dropped to 300,000 RMB per kilogram, equivalent to 300 RMB per gram, still considered as expensive as gold.
“Through efforts in using the synthetic biology production chain, this year we have reduced the price of ergothioneine by 90% compared to last year. Last year it was 300 RMB per gram, and this year, due to market conditions, it’s basically 30 RMB per gram. At this cost, ergothioneine is now affordable for the masses, whether used in health supplements or skincare products. Its cost is no longer a barrier,” said Wei Ding.
Wei Ding emphasized that only by achieving high productivity oriented towards user demand and making ergothioneine, once considered a “gold price,” affordable, can further application development be explored. With the production capacity provided by enterprises, ergothioneine will no longer be a symbol of a small amount of high-end skincare or health products but will activate development opportunities in biopharmaceuticals, environmental protection, food, and other fields, benefiting more people and driving the development of the entire emerging industry chain and even the overall health industry.
“For more than a decade, ergothioneine has been widely praised in the industry. It is a very good antioxidant active ingredient with significant anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, and health improvement effects. Current research has recognized that it has no side effects on the human body. However, because it was too expensive, it was dubbed with the name ‘golden sky-high price,’ making it inaccessible to the public. Since we all know it’s a good thing but because it’s too expensive, everyone can’t afford it, why not leverage the technological power of synthetic biology to truly remove the ‘sky-high price halo’ and benefit the public? This is also the original intention of GeneIII choosing ergothioneine as its first project,” said Wei Ding.
GeneIII’s development goal is to be based in the synthetic biology industry and lead its future. “We don’t simply position ourselves as an active ingredient for skincare or health products. Our goal is to build a professional synthetic biology platform that can achieve end-to-end production from the construction of engineered bacteria to the engineering-scale production of final products. This is our core positioning,” said Wei Ding.
Maintaining and promoting such core positioning is not primarily about investing in equipment or building large factories but focusing on the entire chain to achieve breakthroughs and enhancements in core research and development capabilities at critical points.
In an interview, Wei Ding mentioned that China is a major country in the fermentation industry, including pharmaceuticals, food, and many other industries, which rely heavily on fermentation. However, the current fermentation industry is largely limited to traditional categories. To truly achieve industrial upgrading and transformation, synthetic biology technology is indispensable. It can provide technical empowerment for the fermentation industry, allowing traditional fermentation industries to embrace the wings of synthetic biology technology and achieve world-leading development in the future.
Currently, GeneIII has expanded its focus from a single product line to new topics. For example, heparin, as an anticoagulant, is widely used in operations such as blood dialysis, extracorporeal circulation, catheterization, microvascular surgery, and anticoagulation of certain blood samples or instruments. Currently, all commercial heparin production worldwide still uses the traditional method of “porcine intestinal membrane extraction.” To solve various difficulties on the road to commercializing synthetic heparin, GeneIII collaborates with leading research institutions and experts in related fields to break down barriers between synthetic biology and chemical synthesis. With its high research and development efficiency, from the construction of bacterial strains to fermentation, purification, and production, GeneIII has addressed possible shortcomings in several key areas of synthetic heparin production, truly enhancing its competitiveness in the industry.
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Participating in the Establishment of the First Domestic Ergothioneine Application “Group Standard”
Laying a Solid Foundation for Industry Development
On September 12, 2023, the first domestic “Group Standard for Ergothioneine as a Cosmetic Ingredient” officially came into effect. This group standard specifies the technical requirements, inspection methods, inspection rules, labeling and packaging, storage, and shelf life of ergothioneine as a cosmetic ingredient, applicable to ergothioneine prepared using microbial fermentation or biocatalysis methods such as synthesis, separation, refining, and crystallization. This standard fills the gap for ergothioneine in the cosmetics field. As one of the drafting units of this group standard, GeneIII has been deeply involved in the formulation of ergothioneine standards, playing an important role in promoting the application of ergothioneine in the domestic market.
Wei Ding stated that standardization is the prerequisite for achieving industrial modernization. As the “largest producer” of international ergothioneine, GeneIII has always shouldered the responsibility of leading the industry. In the formulation of the first group standard for ergothioneine, GeneIII participated extensively, actively implementing the spirit of the “National Standardization Development Outline,” improving the level of standardization around the needs of high-quality industrial development, and playing a leading, supportive, and systematic role in the innovative development of ergothioneine industries, promoting its broader application in various fields.
“In the formulation of standards, for example, whether heavy metals exceed standards, microbial colony indicators exceed standards, and whether purity meets standards are all clearly defined. By actively participating in the formulation of industry standards, we promote the priority of standardization, ensuring the healthy development of this industry,” said Wei Ding.
To leverage core technological strengths, participate in industry standard formulation, and promote the construction of industry chains, it is inevitable to share some key technical information. Wei Ding stated that to truly make synthetic biology serve the public and reflect the value of technology-oriented people, sharing technology closely related to innovation and development in various industries is of great importance, and GeneIII is obliged to do so and is happy to see it happen. “Synthetic biology technology has no industry boundaries. It’s impossible for a single company to do everything. Cooperation, sharing, and innovation together are the way to development.”
The industrial “blueprint” of synthetic biology is still unfolding, and GeneIII’s path of innovation will continue to write new and exciting chapters.