On February 8th, the 2023 Cosmetics Developers Conference and the inaugural Beauty Product Manager Festival, which gathered over 200 beauty brand founders, 2000+ chief scientists, product managers, formulation experts, and R&D engineers, was successfully held in Hangzhou. At this grand event, GeneIII stood out among over 200 competing ingredients and won the “Outstanding China Ingredient” award at the 2023 “Incredible China Ingredients” selection competition.
It is reported that the “Incredible China Ingredients” selection competition started in March of this year and concluded in December, lasting nearly 10 months. Through multiple rounds of data review, online voting, efficacy blind tests, and offline tasting sessions, adhering to the principles of “brand perspective” and “data-driven,” comprehensive evaluations were conducted on the participating ingredients. Among them, GeneIII’s ergothioneine (EGT) ingredient, with its high quality, stability, safety, and effectiveness, won the unanimous favor of expert judges, over 200 brand evaluators, and authoritative testing institutions.
As an award-winning entity, GeneIII was invited to attend the “Incredible China Ingredients” award ceremony and showcased the ergothioneine ingredient at the themed exhibition area. They participated in the special exhibition of winning ingredients, witnessing the glorious moment of outstanding Chinese ingredients together.
Established just two years ago, GeneIII has received industry recognition more than once. In October 2023, GeneIII stood out from 35,000 target companies and was selected for China’s first “Synthetic Biology Industry Value List” along with other companies like Bloomage Biotech and Giants Biogene. In November 2023, GeneIII was successfully shortlisted for the China Brand Innovation Development Project and was elected as a partner of CCTV’s “Quality China” program. Then, in December at the 2023 China Good Formula Annual Summit, GeneIII won the “Star Ingredient Partner” award with its ergothioneine component.
So, how did GeneIII perceive market demand and gain the unanimous recognition of judging panels and major industry awards? What are the technical stories behind this success?
01
Leading in the “Innovation Track” of Synthetic Biology
Achieving Comprehensive Leadership in Quality, Capacity, and Cost of Ergothioneine
In recent years, many companies worldwide have been exploring ways to produce ergothioneine using synthetic biology technology, and GeneIII is just one of them. However, in this emerging field, GeneIII has managed to achieve a “breakthrough start” in just two years, leveraging synthetic biology to reduce the price of ergothioneine to one-tenth of its original cost. They have successfully achieved high capacity production oriented towards customer demand, placing them among the world’s leading manufacturers of ergothioneine.
According to GeneIII’s founder and chairman, Ding Wei, “To truly establish commercial competitiveness, it’s not about sprinting a hundred meters but rather a 4×100-meter relay. That is, it requires four stages: strain construction is just the first leg, followed by fermentation, purification, and finally, engineering-scale production. Each of these four capabilities is essential, and any deficiency in one would hinder progress.” Although there are many emerging companies in the synthetic biology industry, few have managed to complete the entire “end-to-end” chain and run the “4×100-meter” relay, constructing a fully integrated engineering-scale production system.
The so-called “end-to-end” relay race refers to the complete process of ergothioneine bacterial gene editing, fermentation, purification, and engineering-scale production. Specifically, it begins with strain construction technology, where ergothioneine genes are “encoded” using gene editing techniques, inserted into the bacterial chromosome for efficient biosynthesis, resulting in engineered bacteria. Qualified engineered bacteria, acting as “seeds,” undergo a series of fermentation optimization processes including aseptic inoculation, fermentation, rough extraction, fine extraction, liquid phase separation, and efficacy evaluation center. Subsequently, the fermentation products are extracted, with strict control over the ergothioneine raw material crystals, quality, and purity, achieving a raw material purity of 99.97%. Finally, engineering-scale production is carried out relying on a cGMP pharmaceutical-grade production platform.
It is reported that every detail of the ergothioneine raw material production process at GeneIII has been certified by the FDA and meets quality standards such as SGS, CP, USP, EP, and JP. Additionally, it has passed third-party tests for heavy metal content, sensitivity to skin, cytotoxicity, and more. In terms of product application, GeneIII’s ergothioneine demonstrates outstanding performance in terms of light stability, heat resistance, and stability under normal conditions.
Leveraging the synthetic biology technology of its R&D team, GeneIII has mastered the purification processing capacity of 20-ton fermentation tanks, with a monthly production capacity exceeding 3 tons. This comparison provides a more intuitive understanding—ergothioneine content in Ganoderma lucidum is 80 mg/kg, with an annual output of 500 kg per mu of Ganoderma lucidum, containing 40 g of ergothioneine; a 20-ton fermentation tank produces 40 kg of ergothioneine, equivalent to planting Ganoderma lucidum on 1000 mu of land.
02
Driving Innovation in Ergothioneine Market Applications
Participation in the Establishment of the First Ergothioneine “Group Standard”
In terms of ingredient applications, GeneIII, with its leading quality, capacity, and cost advantages, has enabled the realization of “sufficient addition” of ergothioneine, which has traditionally been “monopolized” by high-end brands, truly bringing this valuable ingredient “from the sky to the earth.”
It is understood that before 2017, ergothioneine could only be extracted from rare fungi such as Ganoderma lucidum, with prices reaching as high as $30 million per kilogram. Regarding ergothioneine applications, even international luxury skincare brands primarily relied on “conceptual addition.” Leveraging the advantages of ergothioneine in terms of production capacity, quality, and cost, GeneIII successfully added self-developed ergothioneine in sufficient quantities to its skincare brand HA&EGT Bomeiyan, with an addition of up to 1000+ PPM, surpassing international luxury products by 50-100 times.
Moreover, GeneIII’s self-developed GeneIII ergothioneine capsules were officially launched this year, allowing ergothioneine to be “cosmetically and alimentarily homologous.” These capsules use ergothioneine raw materials independently developed by GeneIII, with each capsule containing 25 mg of ergothioneine, equivalent to one pound of fresh Ganoderma lucidum (literature shows that one pound of fresh Ganoderma lucidum contains only 40 mg of ergothioneine). In terms of improving sleep and fatigue resistance, nourishing qi and blood, and enhancing cognition and the nervous system, GeneIII ergothioneine capsules have received excellent market feedback, selling out upon launch.
In the process of applying ingredients, GeneIII has always taken on the responsibility of leading the industry. In September 2023, China’s first “Group Standard for Ergothioneine for Cosmetics” was officially implemented, filling the gap in the field of ergothioneine in cosmetics. As a deputy editor-in-chief of this group standard, GeneIII was deeply involved in the formulation of the ergothioneine group standard, playing an important role in promoting the application of ergothioneine in the domestic market.
This group standard specifies the technical requirements, inspection methods, inspection rules, storage, and shelf life of ergothioneine used in cosmetics for the first time. It is applicable to ergothioneine prepared by microbial fermentation or biocatalysis methods, including synthesis, separation, refinement, and crystallization processes. The standard emphasizes that when ergothioneine is used in cosmetics, its purity should reach ≥99%, complying with the “Cosmetic Safety Technical Specifications” issued by the China Food and Drug Administration.
03
Building on Talent
24/7 Shifts Forge Ingenious Products
The ability of GeneIII to achieve engineering-scale production of ergothioneine in a short period, solving a series of bottleneck problems such as quality, capacity, and cost, is inseparable from a solid foundation of talent. In the early stages from 0 to 1, GeneIII set “learning ability, innovation ability, teamwork, results orientation, and self-drive” as the criteria for recruiting talent, attracting individuals whose values align with the company’s. In practical operations, core talent lead by example and focus on results. Guided by these values, teams collaborate closely, mobilize resources effectively, and rapidly achieve technological breakthroughs and increased productivity.
In May of this year, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the significant “14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Bioeconomy,” explicitly stating that the bioeconomy, including synthetic biology, is a new driving force for China’s economic transformation. In September, Nanjing announced the “New Era Talent Strong City Construction Action Plan (2023-2025)” with the “25 Measures for Talent Strong City” and “7 Policies for Key Industry Talents,” further emphasizing the importance of talent. These policies aim to combine cutting-edge technology and innovation with the excellent talent in universities and research institutions in Ningxia to promote the high-quality development of technology-leading enterprises.
Located in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, GeneIII fully utilizes the research advantages of universities in Nanjing. In the context of a series of talent policies introduced by Nanjing, GeneIII adheres to the principle of “putting people first,” integrating a large number of high-quality scientific research talents, and forming a solid competitive barrier for the company’s research strength. Currently, 60% of the company’s employees hold doctoral or master’s degrees.
GeneIII’s R&D team, in order to achieve engineering-scale production of ergothioneine, steadfastly adheres to the founder’s philosophy that “products are artworks.” They persevere with a product-oriented approach and demonstrate a spirit of tenacity by tackling difficult challenges to the fullest. They work tirelessly, operating on a 24/7 shift schedule, dedicating themselves day and night to R&D across the entire chain. Over the past two years, from upstream strain construction, biological fermentation, purification, engineering-scale production, to product efficacy evaluation, and market application, they have consistently upheld a spirit of scientific rigor and professionalism, committed to crafting products of exceptional quality.
It is believed that in the future, GeneIII will continue to build on talent, adhere to the primary element of product orientation, leverage synthetic biology as a medium, focus on the efficient development and application of more bioactive ingredients, continuously innovate in response to the pain points of ingredient demand, and expand the application scenarios of vertically integrated ingredients. They will open up the market with high-quality products, empowering and adding brilliance to “Chinese ingredients.”
