Recently, the “2024 Jiangsu Province New Year Health Poetry and Music Festival” themed “Life is like a song, walking towards the light”, guided by the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the Cyberspace Administration, Jiangsu Provincial Health Commission, hosted by Xinhua News Agency Media Group and Jiangsu Hospital Association, and organized by Xinhua Daily Press Health Media Center, Jiangsu Traditional Chinese Medicine Development Research Center, Nanjing University School of Government Management, Nanjing Nursing Association, Nanjing Hospital Association, and others, was successfully held in Nanjing. Leaders, experts, scholars, and well-known figures from the health sector of Jiangsu Province gathered together to celebrate the event.
During the ceremony, Xinhua Daily Press honored units that have made contributions in the medical and health fields. Among them, Jiangsu GeneIII Bio-Technology Co., Ltd. (GeneIII), a synthetic biology company headquartered in Nanjing, was awarded the “2023 Social Responsibility Contribution Award” for its outstanding contribution to the rapid realization of the industrialized production of the precious anti-aging ingredient and mitochondrial-level antioxidant “ergothioneine” (ET).
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24/7 “Three Shifts” Dedicated to Crafting Fine Products
Striving for Excellence to Satisfy Society
“To promote health, one needs a sense of mission. The rapid development of GeneIII is attributed to the company’s adherence to the craftsmanship spirit of ‘products as masterpieces’. Our entire company, day and night, spares no effort in research and development,” shared Chen Xiulan, Vice President of Human Resources at GeneIII, during the award ceremony. “To ensure high-quality product mass production, our research and development team has shown relentless determination, working around the clock, seven days a week, tirelessly tackling the technical challenges in fermentation, purification, and scale-up production of ergothioneine.”
It is reported that to overcome the technical challenges in fermentation, purification, and mass production of ergothioneine, GeneIII’s research and development team demonstrated a spirit of perseverance, working tirelessly 24/7 in three shifts to advance from upstream strain construction, biological fermentation, purification, and scale-up production, to product efficacy evaluation and market application. GeneIII consistently upholds a scientific, rigorous, and professional craftsmanship spirit, striving to achieve the highest standards in product quality.
Thanks to this relentless pursuit of excellence, GeneIII, established just two years ago, has rapidly achieved cGMP industrialized production of ergothioneine, with a monthly production capacity of 3 tons and a raw material purity of up to 99.97%, reaching a ceiling level. With its advantages in quality, cost, and production capacity, GeneIII has emerged as the world’s leading manufacturer of ergothioneine and has received positive feedback from society. In October 2023, GeneIII was selected for the inaugural “Synthetic Biology Industry Value List” among 35,000 target companies in China. In November 2023, GeneIII was chosen as a partner for CCTV’s “Quality China” program. In December of the same year, GeneIII won awards such as “Star Ingredient Partner” and “Outstanding Chinese Ingredient” in the China Good Formula Annual Ceremony, all thanks to its ergothioneine raw material.
“In the future, GeneIII will continue to prioritize consumer rights protection and user experience as the foundation and essence of our business operations, continuously promoting product and service upgrades,” said Chen Xiulan, Vice President of Human Resources at GeneIII.
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Making “Golden-Priced” Ergothioneine Accessible to the Public
Bringing Benefits to the Masses Reflects the Value of Technology
In recent years, ergothioneine has gained significant attention in the field of healthcare. Publicly available information indicates that ergothioneine is a natural powerful antioxidant that was first isolated from ergot fungus as early as 1909 and has since been found in mushrooms such as reishi and shiitake. Extensive research has shown that ergothioneine can enter mitochondria to remove free radicals, exhibiting antioxidant effects more than six times that of astaxanthin, 20 times that of coenzyme Q10, and 60,000 times that of vitamin E.
However, until 2017, ergothioneine could only be extracted from rare mushrooms such as reishi, costing as much as $30 million per kilogram, earning it the title of “golden-priced”. Therefore, in terms of ergothioneine application, even international luxury brands mostly relied on “conceptual additions”. Since its inception, GeneIII has focused its first project on the independent research and development of ergothioneine. Through strain construction, fermentation, purification, and scaled-up production, GeneIII has reduced the cost of ergothioneine to one-tenth of its previous price. With the support of its raw material advantage, GeneIII successfully incorporated its self-developed ergothioneine into its skincare brand HA&EGT and GeneIII Ergothioneine Capsules introduced in 2023.
In the field of skincare, HA&EGT contains ergothioneine at a concentration of over 1000 PPM, which is 50-100 times that of international luxury skincare products. The GeneIII Ergothioneine Capsules introduced in 2023 contain 25mg of ergothioneine per capsule, equivalent to one pound of fresh reishi mushroom. In terms of improving sleep, fatigue resistance, invigorating qi and nourishing blood, these capsules have received outstanding market feedback and were sold out immediately upon release.
“For more than a decade, ergothioneine has been highly praised by the industry for its significant anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, and health-improving effects, and related research has recognized its lack of side effects on the human body. However, due to its high cost, it has been dubbed the ‘golden-priced’ ingredient and has not been widely used. Since we know it’s a good thing but inaccessible to many due to its high cost, why not leverage the technological power of synthetic biology to remove the ‘golden halo’ and benefit the public? This was the initial intention of GeneIII in choosing ergothioneine as its first project,” shared Mr. Wei Ding, founder and chairman of GeneIII, in an interview with Xinhua Daily.
With the production capacity advantage provided by GeneIII, ergothioneine is no longer a “banner” for a small number of high-end skincare or health products but can activate the development space in a series of fields such as biopharmaceuticals, environmental protection, and food, benefiting more social groups in need and driving the development of the entire healthcare industry.
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More than 60% of the employees hold master’s or doctoral degrees
Talent as the foundation, steadily advancing to build the future dream
Meanwhile, GeneIII Bio-Tech, headquartered in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, also fully leverages the scientific research advantages of local universities in Nanjing. Adhering to the principle of “putting people first,” it continues to enrich its talent pool and integrate external scientific research institute resources to establish a competitive advantage in research and development. Dr. Wang Yang, Chief Scientist of GeneIII Bio-Tech, holds a Doctor of Pharmacy from Oregon State University, USA, and has completed postdoctoral research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. He is also a distinguished talent of the Zijin Star Program at Nanjing University of Science and Technology and a double innovation talent. In the field of synthetic biology, he holds multiple invention patents. Among the employees of GeneIII Bio-Tech, 60% hold doctoral or master’s degrees.
“The principle of ‘putting people first’ is not valued in many startup companies. Most founders have misconceptions and believe that they should first start their business and then hire good talents with money. But I have a different view on this,” said Wei Ding, founder and chairman of GeneIII. He believes that to start a business, one must first establish a core team of talents and prioritize hiring. Only by selecting the right people can we focus on the professional field and do things well.
In the early stages of entrepreneurship, GeneIII takes “learning ability, innovation ability, teamwork ability, results orientation, and self-drive” as the criteria for selecting personnel, attracting talents whose values are in line with the company’s. In actual business operations, core talents lead by example and are results-oriented. Guided by such values, teams collaborate closely, fully mobilize resources, and quickly achieve technological breakthroughs and efficiency growth.
In the future, GeneIII will continue to regard talent as the foundation and adhere to the first element of productism. Leveraging synthetic biology as a medium, it will focus on the efficient development and application of more bioactive raw materials, continuously innovate to address the pain points of raw material demand, and constantly expand the application scenarios of vertical raw materials. With high-quality products, it will tap into the health market, provide better services to society, and benefit all beings.
[1] Data comes from a third-party independent professional laboratory.
[2] According to the document “Mushrooms: A rich source of the antioxidants ergothioneine and glutathione,” 1 pound of fresh reishi mushrooms contains 40mg of ergothioneine.