{"id":1487,"date":"2021-12-22T11:50:18","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T16:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/microsites.engineering.nyu.edu\/cie\/?p=1487"},"modified":"2022-10-02T08:26:44","modified_gmt":"2022-10-02T12:26:44","slug":"brooklyn-bioscience-solving-the-worlds-agricultural-problems-one-protein-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/microsites.engineering.nyu.edu\/cie\/brooklyn-bioscience-solving-the-worlds-agricultural-problems-one-protein-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"2021 Brooklyn Bioscience\u2014solving the world’s agricultural problems one protein at a time!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Alara Tuncer<\/span><\/p>\n

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Brooklyn Bioscience is a start-up that aims to \u201cdevelop and commercialize protein-based research tools.\u201d It all began when Jacob Kronenberg, Dr Stanley Chu and Dr Priya Katyal, researchers at <\/span>NYU Tandon<\/span><\/a>, identified a problem: the use of harmful pesticides in the farming industry. As protein engineers, they meticulously formulated a solution: an enzyme. But just like many scientists before them, they\u2019ve encountered the challenge of turning their academic pursuits into an entrepreneurial venture.<\/span><\/p>\n

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They initially had the idea to sell their enzyme \u201cto people who grow the crops with the highest amount of pesticides,\u201d soon to realize that \u201cthe economic incentives aren\u2019t strong enough for large-scale industrial farms to switch over.\u201d This is because \u201ceven if companies know that pesticides are bad for their consumers, people are still buying them.\u201d Even harmful habits are hard to break. As a result, founders of Brooklyn Bioscience \u201chad to become a lot more specific with what kind of farmers\u201d they wanted to work with, to make their product a success.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The founders all come from \u201ca science background rather than a business background\u201d so they\u2019ve encountered similar challenges to other scientists and researchers that have preceded them with their own entrepreneurial pursuits. But instead of breaking down the substance of their product to appeal to more consumers, they\u2019ve decided to tackle science with a business mindset and the business with a scientist\u2019s mindset.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Priya Katyal & Andrew Olsen- $50K award from PowerbridgeNY<\/em><\/p>\n

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Although it is important to \u201cthink about science like businesspeople,\u201d by \u201canalyzing the costs, incentive structures,\u201d it is equally as important to think about \u201cbusiness like scientists.\u201d Essentially, \u201cmaking hypotheses\u201d about the market and \u201crefining them through experimentation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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The main advice the researchers have for other start-ups is to \u201cget out and talk to people.\u201d With emphasis on having meaningful conversations with anyone who can bring new insights, first-time entrepreneurs should talk to \u201cpeople who might be your customers,\u201d \u201cpeople who might be your colleagues,\u201d even \u201cpeople who might be your competitors.\u201d This way you can discover \u201ca niche for what you want to do\u201d and your product design supports the needs of that niche in the best way possible. And \u201cthe only way to do this is by talking to people to learn as much as you can.\u201d Research is essential, even for businesses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The hardest part \u201cabout beginning a startup was learning to have new kinds of conversations.\u201d As a scientist, the founders were used to talking to people coming from similar backgrounds that harbor the same kind of knowledge, specifically \u201ctalking about science with experts.\u201d However, \u201cin a startup, you\u2019re not always talking to scientists and you\u2019re not always learning from experts\u201d and \u201cthere ar<\/span>e different questions that are [just as] important to ask.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

PhD Candidate jacond Kronenberg & Stanley Chu, PhD<\/em><\/p>\n

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The founders emphasize the importance of communicating your field of expertise to an audience that may not be an expert on the subject. \u201cA great idea is useless if you don\u2019t tell people about it.\u201d However, it is especially important for new entrepreneurs \u201cto learn how to communicate their ideas in a clear and convincing way\u201d to an audience that are not necessarily experts but are potential consumers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For Brooklyn Bioscience, \u201cpersonal success\u201d isn\u2019t something you can define \u201cusing a single measurement.\u201d Since everyone has a variety of goals that are authentic to them, personal success is how you try to meet these goals. Although \u201cyou might measure your success as an entrepreneur in terms of meeting company revenue targets or expanding your market share,\u201d there are several other roles you play as an individual. \u201cLike friend, parent or mentor,\u201d which makes the definition of personal success more complex, as \u201cit\u2019s important to holistically take other roles you have into account.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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The founders concluded by noting that \u201cthere are two sides to a scientific startup: research and business. As a team, it\u2019s important to have people who work on the science, but also people with business expertise, which is what our team has struggled more with developing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Alara Tuncer   Brooklyn Bioscience is a start-up that aims to \u201cdevelop and commercialize protein-based research tools.\u201d It all began when Jacob Kronenberg, Dr Stanley Chu and Dr Priya […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/microsites.engineering.nyu.edu\/cie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/microsites.engineering.nyu.edu\/cie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/microsites.engineering.nyu.edu\/cie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/microsites.engineering.nyu.edu\/cie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/microsites.engineering.nyu.edu\/cie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1487"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/microsites.engineering.nyu.edu\/cie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1601,"href":"http:\/\/microsites.engineering.nyu.edu\/cie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487\/revisions\/1601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/microsites.engineering.nyu.edu\/cie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/microsites.engineering.nyu.edu\/cie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/microsites.engineering.nyu.edu\/cie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}