Team:UCL/Alphabrick
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ALPHABRICK
1. Executive Summary
AlphaBrick is a novel software tool for the easy design, exchange and creation of synthetic gene constructs.
Recent advances in the synthetic biology field, such as with the Crisper/Cas9 system, have dramatically increased the potential of synthetic biology technologies to transform our world. We can now use our biological understanding to create products that solve some of the biggest challenges the world faces. These advances, however, require a new set of accessible computational tools that enable the synthetic biologist to quickly and collaboratively design and test DNA circuitry.
Employing a lean methodology, we have identified the three key problems faced by the synthetic biology community. Currently, (1) the design of gene circuits is complex because collaboration between and within teams is difficult and thought processes are lost, (2) exchange of gene circuit parts is messy, as you have to individually track and hunt down the person who created it and (3) individuals have to have an advanced understanding of programming languages to use automated labs.
Our software platform solution, Alpha Brick, originated at the UK’s first 72-hour bio-hackathon at which it won first place. AlphaBrick allows synthetic biologists to easily design, exchange and create DNA circuitry. The platform enables users to experience a quicker, traceable design process that ensures that decisions are recorded and that subsequent progress is accelerated. It provides a marketplace for lab designs by facilitating the buying and selling of gene circuit parts, making collaboration easier. The integration of the AlphaBrick platform with Transcriptic’s automated laboratories saves precious time and reduces the knowledge-barrier to using robotic labs. Our platform’s patent notification and parts combination recommendation, furthermore, address an unmet need of biotech industry that we identified through industry interviews. We envisage that AlphaBrick will have a big impact on accelerating synthetic biology research and commercialisation.
The synthetic biology community of biohackers, academics, startups and established biotech companies who have these problems is growing quickly and the current tools available don’t address these concerns in an integrated way. There is space in this is $1.2 billion market for an easy to use tool that allows high share ability of gene circuitry. The platform will be commercialised such that users will be required to pay a monthly subscription fee at the average market rate for the platform’s premium features.
Our multidisciplinary team consists of developers, biologists and entrepreneurs and can be broadly stratified into product development and business development. The current team was formed at the Cambridge University Technology and Enterprise Club’s 2016 Bio hackathon. Our 4 co-founding members are working to establish AlphaBrick as an incorporated software company.
Working through the prestigious Accelerate Cambridge programme, we envisage that our alpha-version will be ready for distribution in January 2017 and that our final product will be ready for launch in June 2017. In order to ensure the progression of our venture, Alphabrick are looking to raise £20,000 in pre-seed from angel investors funding or non-dilutive funding by the start of February 2017.
2. Product Concept
The Problem
Recent advances in the $6.4 billion synthetic biology field have dramatically increased the potential of synthetic biology technologies to transform our world. We can now use our biological understanding to create products that solve some of the biggest challenges the world faces. We have adopted a strong lean methodology to identify that these advances have also lead to a currently poorly met need for a new set of accessible computational tools that enable the synthetic biologist to quickly and collaboratively design and test DNA circuitry.
Through extensive interviews with the synthetic biology community, we have sought to verify every one of our business hypothesis to generate evidence-based identification of the pains of each our customer segments and the value propositions that they care most about. By talking to 69 iGEM teams, 7 synthetic biology startups, the UK’s world leading synthetic biology labs and a major world pharmaceutical R&D lab, we have been able to identify the key pain points in the work flow of synthetic biology users. This has informed and shaped our continuously changing business model canvas, the staple tool of all startups in search of a viable and scalable business model.
The three key pains of most of our customer segments within the synthetic biology community are that (1) the design of gene parts is complex because collaboration between and within teams is difficult and thought processes are lost; (2) exchange of gene circuit parts is messy, as you have to individually track and hunt down the person who created it and (3) individuals have to have an advanced understanding of programming languages to use automated labs. Our customer interviews, moreover, elucidated nuances in the pains felt by our customer segments: while most of our customers would benefit from easier access to automated cloud labs to reduced labour costs and the time taken to run manual experiments, some of customers, and arguably our most important customers in terms of purchasing power, would not benefit from this due to worries over intellectual property and trade secrets. From talks with a major pharmaceutical and biotech company, we also identified a fourth pain point, (4) the need for notifications about patented sequences and readily available information about part combinations.
Our Solution
We have therefore founded Alphabrick, a software tool interfacing automated cloud labs, for the design, exchange, and creation of synthetic gene constructs. Our software platform solution, www.alphabrick.bio, originated at the UK’s first 72 hour biohackathon at which it won first place.
AlphaBrick allows synthetic biologists to easily design, exchange and create DNA circuitry. The platform enables users to experience a quicker, traceable design process that ensures that decisions are recorded and that subsequent progress is accelerated. It provides a marketplace for lab designs; by facilitating the buying and selling of gene circuit parts, making collaboration easier. The integration of the AlphaBrick platform with Transcriptic’s automated laboratories saves precious time and reduces the knowledge-barrier to using robotic labs. Given our customer interviews, we envisage that this platform will have a big impact on accelerating SynBio research and commercialisation.
We demoed a successful run of our first prototype and MVP with a use-case at the Cambridge Biohackathon using Transcriptic’s automated cloud lab work cell in July of this year.
We have since been working to expand the capabilities of our platform. Our product development team are hard at work on algorithms for effective recommendations for the best combination of constructs when designing a DNA circuit as well as data-mining solutions for notifications about patented DNA sequences.
3. Commercial Potential
Market Opportunity
As synthetic biology technology has been developing even quicker than that predicted by Moore’s Law, the $6.4 billion synthetic biology market is set to grow by one of the biggest compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) of any field. The synthetic biology market will make up 6% of the total biotech market. Considering the value system and chains within the synthetic biology field’s workflow, it is clear that there is trapped value with regards to the effieicney, accessibility and user empowement that can be addressed by new computational biology solutions such as AlphaBrick. The computational biology market is set to grow by 21% from it’s current $1.7 billion valuation. This therefore presents an immensely profitable potential market opportunity for Alphabrick.
Competitor Analysis
An analysis of the competitive landscape into which Alphabrick will be released has proved favourable. Alphabrick’s platform, as a whole, does not have direct competitors as there is no commercially available platform that integrates the pains that Alphabrick addresses. When broken down, however, into the individual features that it offers the user, it can be understood to have a number of indirect competitors in the DNA sequence design and automated creation space. While DNA sequences can be designed for the specific purposed of using the Crisper/Cas9 system with Desktop Genetics and more broadly with Benchling, these software solutions do not have the extensive gene construct combination recommendation or patent notification that our platform has. Furthermore, these platforms do not interface with automated laboratories. These automated laboratories are partners of our software platform as our platform directs business to their way. Furthermore, currently widely used synthetic biology tools such as SnapGene and APE do not have the intuitive user interface that reduces barriers to entry for new synthetic biologists. The combined share ability and usability that our platform enables is unprecedented. There is therefore space for AlphaBrick in this competitive landscape.
Intellectual Property
Alphabrick’s intellectual property has thus far been protected by trade secrets and copyrights. We are working to obtain legally binding trademarks with the UK Intellectual Property Office for our platform through advice and mentorship from Accelerate Cambridge, the accelerator programme on which we have been accepted.
Our platform layout and written content is automatically covered by UK copyright protection law. Alphabrick has signed a series of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with all potential investors and mentors with which we have shared sensitive information about our platform and features. Alphabrick’s platform is also built using closed code and therefore trade secrets form a big part of our intellectual property protection strategy. Trade secrets give us a competitive advantage when it comes to protecting our algorithms because it means that we don’t have to publish and make public sensitive aspects of our platform. While common in the biotech field, patents in the software field are contentious and since the Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank software infringement case ruling, the software patent landscape has shifted considerably such that patenting in this field is rarely the best intellectual property protection strategy to pursue. This is very pertinent to AlphaBrick especially given the early stage of this startup and the large costs associated with engaging with patent attorneys. By using trade secrets, AlphaBrick is however at risk if our code is discovered independently, if our platform is reverse-engineered and/if companies who later patent a similar technology take patent infringement actions. We have sought to mitigate the likelihood of these risks occurring by safeguarding our code using firewalls and working with Accelerate Cambridge to develop a sound long-term intellectual property strategy.
Pathway to Commercialisation
Alphabrick are progressing through the prestigious Accelerate Cambridge programme at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School to identify the best pathway to commercialisation of the software platform. By 2017, the initial funding obtained for the platform and founder resources are set to run out. Due to this, the team will be raising pre-seed funding in November to continue and prepare for the launch of the alpha version of the platform by January 2017. The marketing strategy for the launch of the final product will build on the traction gained via users of the alpha and beta versions. Alphabrick has already achieved a formidable network within the biotech community and industry for its early stages, it will harness this to gain the breadth of selected users it needs to complete an initial alpha testing phase. The feedback from this phase will shape the beta version which will be released to a yet bigger number of users to ensure that the platform is ready for product launch in June 2017. The model for the revenue stream for Alphabrick will be from subscription fees paid by users to unlock premium features on the software platform.
4. Business Environment
Alphabrick’s resources, as a startup, are geared towards the realisation of a rolling series of short-term goals that are necessary for the survival of a cash-strapped venture. However, a consideration of the long-term, external and internal, issues that may arise and hinder or help Alphabrick’s progression to a fully-fledged synthetic biology software company is undertaken here to evaluate Alphabrick’s longer-term business environment. A STEEPLE framework which in its augmented form encompasses a PEST (political, economic, social and environmental) and SWOT (strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, threats) analysis, is used her evaluate external and internal points of possible concern for Alphabrick.
5. Team
Our multidisciplinary team consists of developers, biologists and entrepreneurs and can be broadly stratified into product development and business development. The current team was formed at the Cambridge University Technology and Enterprise Club’s 2016 Bio hackathon. Our 4 co-founding members are working to establish AlphaBrick as an incorporated software company.
Our product development team consists of Kelvin Zhang, Evgeny Saveliev and Shannon Doyle. With 8 years of coding experience, Kelvin is a freelance software developer. Kelvin works to build AlphaBrick’s back end code. Having studied natural sciences and as a seasoned programmer, Evgeny is currently works in software development for AiC. Evgeny works on front-end development, building the user-interface for AlphaBrick. As a recent UCL Pharmacology graduate, Shannon has been using her knowledge of laboratory protocols to help shape AlphaBrick’s interface with cloud laboratories. Together, Kelvin and Evgeny have the necessary expertise to develop our platform, while Shannon’s biology expertise informs the platform’s output.
Our business development is spearheaded by Hana Janebdar, a serial entrepreneur. Hana draws on her experience of the biotech landscape and lean methodology to carve out AlphaBrick’s product and business concept. Hana’s role involves exploring applications and potential markets for the platform, assessing feedback on our product and refining the product specification through active market research.
Team Member Profiles
Kelvin Zhang
Kelvin is an aspiring software engineer with a strong passion for web development He has accumulated a large amount of technical experience in recent years from working on software projects both at home and abroad. His diverse skillset also includes Linux server management and web application security, the latter in which he has attained several achievements. He works to develop AlphaBrick’s back-end using PHP + Laravel.
Evgeny Saveliev
Evgeny is a University of Cambridge Natural Sciences graduate. Evgeny is a self-taught programmer, with significant experience in Scientific Computing and Numerical methods. Evgeny has been working with Apps in CADD (AiC), a civil engineering and software development company. Evgeny carries out front-end development for AlphaBrick, making sure the user-interface is accessible and intuitive.
Shannon Doyle
Shannon is a UCL graduate of Pharmacology and has been working to ensure that AlphaBrick can provide an easy to use interface with cloud laboratories. Shannon bringer her knowledge of lab work flows and programming to help write the protocols for the automated creations of user designs.
Hana Janebdar
Hana Janebdar is a graduate of Imperial College London and Biochemical Engineering from UCL. Hana’s experience includes numerous positions within the biotech industry and as an active member of the London startup community, she has previously co-founded a medical device company. Hana is a student member of the UCL iGEM 2016 team and works to develop the product concept, providing the biology input needed for AlphaBrick while also working to develop AlphaBrick’s business proposition.
Advisory Board
AlphaBrick has been working to secure an advisory board to provide the essential advice needed to shape its vision for the future. AlphaBrick will be bringing on board, a scientific advisor and biotech business consultant. So far Alphabrick has been advised by members of UCL’s department of Biochemical Engineering and mentors from the Judge Business School which includes senior staff from the biotechnology industry.
6. Funding
Milestones
Our key milestones until the launch of the alpha version of our product focus on an initial proof-of-concept prototype for α-testing. Feedback and further development of our business model through customer interviews will shape our understanding and ability to prepare for our first round of investment fundraising. Our β version will be ready for launch in April 2017 while the launch of our first commercial version which will generate a revenue stream is set to launch by the end of June 2017.
Cost Analysis
We presented Alphabrick to investors, VCs, startup founders and academics at the 2016 Technology Ventures Conference before being selected as the winners of the UK’s biggest biohackathon and recipients of the £1500 first prize to develop our product further. We were then fast-tracked to the Judge Business School’s prestigious Accelerator programme to bring Alphabrick to market by 2017.
Using the award money from the CUTEC Biohackathon, our cash flow projection for the first 7 months indicates that we will have sufficient resources to fund development of our product. In the 6th month we will be poised for applying our first round of pre-seed investor funding for subsequent progression to the release of our alpha and beta versions.
Funding Strategy
Our funding strategy for the next 6 months after January of 2017 focuses on obtaining non-dilutive grants and awards. Our £1500 award as the winning team of the CUTEC 2016 Biohackathon will burn out by February 2017, as will the resources of our founders to maintain themselves while working on this startup. We are exploring further funding opportunities through the Accelerate Cambridge programme. This will predominantly fund product development, and administrative fees for IP protection.
As the bulk of the cost of product development, after the launch in January 2017, is composed of the salaries of full time staff, we aim to raise pre-seed angel investment to take Alphabrick through its alpha and beta testing phases. By the beginning of February 2017 will aim to have raised £20,000. Should we obtain sufficient funds, we will be looking for our first round of seed investor funding to scale up and roll out our marketing strategy for June of 2017. As our current business model centres on a subscription model for premium features, we envisage that later stage product development will come from the income generated from subscription sales for our premium features in the region of £32.99 which is the current market standard for our type of software tool.
We project that sales will initially be small in number as early adopters start to use our platform. Following a successful fundraising round for seed investment, Alphabrick will roll out a marketing campaign to drive sales and begin generation of revenue so that the company can break even and start to make a profit. Assuming a further, £40,000 is raised in the seed-fund round and that two more full time staff are added to the team, we will only have to make an average of 157 client subscription sales to break even by the end of 2018.
Exit Strategy
We would only consider exiting this start-up after achieving a worthy market valuation. In the meantime, we intend to continue to establish and run the business until a suitable and sizable offer is made. At a later stage we anticipate that offers are likely to come from automated laboratory businesses such as Transcriptic. Automated laboratories are seeking to transform the labour-intensive scientific process. As part of their growth model these businesses are likely to want to acquire a platform with a strong user-base that makes their technology more accessible.
In the event that the proposed plan is not successful, we will endeavour to adjust our plan accordingly. If this also fails, we will implement measures to exit the business with minimal damage to all stake-holders. Tangible assets will be liquidated to cover any outstanding debts. Definitions of "successful" and time limits for achieving milestones are included in AlphaBrick's Co-founder's Agreement.
