Game-changing solutions evolving towards the market

RTDI is dedicated to assisting innovative companies in developing and successfully marketing new products and technologies. Their extensive portfolio of services is designed to help companies navigate and overcome the primary challenges encountered in transforming visionary ideas into sustainable businesses. In this context, RTDI has recently provided support to a European project titled “PathoGelTrap: New Blue Revolution through a pioneering pathogen-trapping technology based on bioselective hydrogel-forming proteins”. This project, which involved six partners from four European countries, received funding from EXCELLENT SCIENCE – Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) to create a cutting-edge solution for precision aquaculture. RTDI has provided this European consortium with support to design the exploitation plan of the main assets developed and successfully tested during the project. RTDI’s support has contributed to ensuring that the innovative solutions derived from this project could be effectively utilized and commercialized, thereby contributing significantly to the advancement of sustainable aquaculture practices.

PathoGelTrap has developed a new technology for fish health management that allows the prevention and control of infectious diseases by selectively blocking the pathogens directly into the water, surpassing the current technological paradigm that focuses on disease treatment through the direct action over the fish by a broad-spectrum antibiotic, which alters the environmental microbiota. This technology opens the door for a disrupting way for future pathogenic disease control.

Current disease prevention tools in aquaculture provide some level of effectiveness against disease outbreaks, but there are significant unmet challenges and threats. Parasites with complex life cycles, such as Sea lice and Gyrodactylus Salaris, are difficult to control. The industry also faces threats from new and emerging diseases, particularly as aquaculture expands into new areas and species encounter unfamiliar pathogens. A major concern is the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria due to the overuse and misuse of antibiotics. Similarly, parasites like sea lice are developing resistance to chemical treatments, causing significant problems and financial burdens, especially in the salmon industry. Climate change exacerbates these issues by altering water temperatures and patterns, potentially increasing disease outbreaks and changing the distribution of diseases. Additionally, viral diseases like IPN and Betanodavirus cause substantial losses, and there are no sufficiently effective pharmacological tools to manage them.

Therefore, despite the existence of disease prevention tools, their drawbacks such as high costs, inefficiencies, complexity, and negative externalities make many fish farmers willing to adopt alternative, more effective disease prevention methods.

PathoGelTrap aims to meet these drawbacks of current disease management for aquaculture by developing an antibiotic/vaccine-free disease management technology able to remove specific pathogens directly from the water in quest of aquaculture sustainability. PathoGelTrap stands out from traditional methods like antibiotics, ozone, or UV filtration systems due to its ability to target specific pathogens, many of which have developed resistance to other treatments or require high dosages for elimination.

Unlike broad-spectrum treatments such as antibiotics, UV systems, or ozone, which disrupt the microbial balance in the water, PathoGelTrap selectively targets harmful pathogens without harming beneficial microorganisms. These beneficial microbes play a crucial role in fish health, aiding in digestion, nutrient absorption, and providing immunity against pathogens. By preserving these microorganisms, PathoGelTrap avoids the negative impacts of microbial imbalance on fish farming exploitations:

• Lost Productivity: This disruption not only affects beneficial microorganisms but also induces stress in fish, adversely impacting their health and growth. This leads to reduced productivity in fish farms.
• Risk of Disease Outbreaks: The ecological imbalance heightens the risk of disease outbreaks. It compromises fish’s immunological defences and provides an environment for persistent pathogens to thrive, significantly elevating the risk of diseases.
• Higher Costs: To counteract the imbalance, fish farmers often need to introduce new microbiota, increasing the complexity and operational costs of farm management.

RTDI has helped PathoGelTrap’s coordinator, SmartWater Planet, to explore these concrete value propositions, explore the exploitation potential of this innovative solution and design an effective strategy to bring it to the market.

A market study has confirmed the PathoGelTrap’s potential, highlighting its unique position as an external, targeted disease prevention solution. The results show that there is a market opportunity and that PathoGelTrap can provide a differential offering among all competitive disease management tools currently available. Moreover, interviews with fish farmers have reinforced these conclusions, revealing ongoing challenges and high interest for PathoGelTrap as a more suitable alternative to existing methods. Because of underserved problems, fish farmers generally consider that the risk of an outbreak is still high, and are willing to test and potentially adopt innovative and highly targeted solutions such as PathoGelTrap.

RTDI has also helped PathoGelTrap to design the go-to-market strategy and a sustainable business plan for the commercialization of this new solution. Moreover, we have also deepened into the financial plan, potential risks, and overall conclusions, for positioning PathoGelTrap as a game-changing solution in aquaculture disease management.