Interview with Huante Biotechnology: Little zebrafish with great energy, peeking into the future of the big health industry from zebrafish

"Zebrafish biodetection and safety research and development technology, as an innovative technology, has special application value
.
" This is said by Li Chunqi
, a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a former expert member of WHO, a zebrafish applied research and drug research scientist, and the founder and scientist of Hangzhou Huante Biotechnology Co.
, Ltd.
(hereinafter referred to as "Huante Biotechnology").
。 [1] Figure: Li Chunqi, founder of Huante Biotech (Image source: provided by the interviewee) Zebrafish, as an important model animal in modern life sciences, health sciences and environmental sciences and other research fields, this tropical freshwater fish native to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal in South Asian countries in the southern foothills of the Himalayas has shown its huge application potential in many fields such as drug research and development, health care and functional food evaluation, gene editing, cosmetics evaluation and registration filing, and is regarded as the next generation of "guinea pigs"
。 With zebrafish biodetection and safety R&D technology as the core, Huante Biotech is an important promoter of
this industry.
Recently, 35dou had a dialogue with Li Chunqi, and he systematically sorted out the history of Huante Biotech along the way and the development vision
of the enterprise.
In 1938, Professor Roosen-Rung of Brown University in the United States reported the results
of zebrafish developmental morphology.
In 1998, a global zebrafish drug development service outsourcing company was established
.
In 2009, less than a century since the study of zebrafish was launched, zebrafish drug toxicological evaluation technology has been GLP certified by the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) and EMA (European Medicines Agency), which also indicates that the safety pharmacology and toxicological evaluation results of zebrafish models can be included as official materials in clinical trial application materials
.
In the same year, Li Chunqi, who has been deeply engaged in the field of zebrafish for decades, returned from the United States to start a business
.
At that time, China was working towards transforming from a generic drug country to a country of innovative drugs, and Li Chunqi, who was well aware of the importance of zebrafish technology to the implementation of this strategy, immediately decided to return to China, "Zebrafish biodetection and safety research and development technology can not only be applied to drug research and development, but also contribute
to China's physical safety and environmental protection.
" It not only has commercial value, but also has the social value
of serving the society and serving the people.
Li Chunqi told 35 Dou that using zebrafish as a research model has four major characteristics
.
Its reliability lays a solid foundation for the establishment of scientific models; Secondly, as a model organism with a similarity of up to 87% with human genes, it can obtain intuitive and scientific prediction results after verification of specificity, high throughput and reproducibility.
High efficiency and cost-effectiveness are also the advantages of zebrafish, in the process of drug development, zebrafish technology can control the detection time within 24 hours, no more than 3 days, and the cost is only 1/10 of the traditional way, or even lower; Its high sensitivity makes it not only able to shine in scientific research, but also shine in the field of biological detection, especially suitable for the detection
of multi-ingredient, multi-target, weak efficacy, slow function of traditional Chinese medicine health functional foods, cosmetics and foods.
Using the experimental data of cyclic zebrafish as research materials, 7 new drugs have used this data for the clinical application
of NPMA (China National Food and Drug Administration) of their new drugs.
Li Chunqi said that zebrafish technology is likely to be the current overall animal biological detection method
suitable for industrialization.
[2] Figure: Zebrafish picture (Image source: Courtesy of the interviewee) Up to now, Huante Biotech has applied for 61 national inventions and 21 authorizations, and jointly published more than 120 SCI and core journal papers
.
With strong technical strength, the company has served more than 750 customers in the fields of innovative medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, health functional food, cosmetics, New Hope in the field of food, Bright Dairy, Feihe, etc.
, and completed more than 7,000 projects
。 After more than ten years of technical research and industrial practice, Huante Biotech has successfully applied zebrafish biological evaluation technology and gene editing technology to drugs, nutritional health foods, cosmetics, food research and development testing, filing testing, production quality control, quality endorsement, and the construction and operation of zebrafish laboratories, providing enterprises with "raw materials-formula-finished products" Efficacy and safety evaluation verification services
in the whole industry chain.
In terms of hardware and software, Huante Biotech has an international zebrafish laboratory
.
In 2012, the company became a AAALAC certified zebrafish laboratory
.
Subsequently, the AAALAC certification body took the standardized management of the zebrafish laboratory of Aquatic Bio as a model, and formulated an important reference standard for the AAALAC certification of global zebrafish laboratories and has been used today
.
As a symbol of international laboratory animal quality and biosafety level, it not only reflects the high quality and high standards of the enterprise, but also an important symbol
of Huante reaching international standards.
In addition to AAALAC international laboratory animal certification, Huante also has CNAS laboratory accreditation, CMA qualification certification and laboratory animal production and use license
.
At present, Huante has established more than 170 scientifically validated zebrafish models
serving multiple industries.
The construction of the standardization laboratory provides assistance for the breeding and harvesting of zebrafish, and provides an environment
for the genetic background, genetic stability and breeding conditions of zebrafish 。 [3] Figure: Huante Bio Laboratory (Image source: provided by the interviewee) takes zebrafish biological detection and safety research and development technology as the background, up to now, in recent years, Huante Biotech has cooperated with a number of organizations and enterprises to issue 10 group standards, of which 7 are the leading standards, covering four key industries
such as traditional Chinese medicine, nutritional and health food, cosmetics, and food (dairy products and meat).
。 In July 2021, Huante Biotech joined more than 50 experts and government regulatory leaders with Academician Zhang Boli as the core to reach a consensus and release the domestic "Expert Consensus on Zebrafish Technology Application": highly recognize the practical application of zebrafish technology in multi-industry fields and further promote standardization work
。 There is a perfect service system, Huante Biotech plans to establish a "double inspection system" perfect service system, but also has become the trust link between Huante Biotech and customers, while providing customers with more value, but also for the enterprise itself to create greater brand value, at present, the company mainly in research and development, supply chain marketing, to help enterprise brand building
。 In terms of R&D system, in the fields of traditional Chinese medicine, health care and functional food, cosmetics, food and other major health fields served by Huante Biotechnology, the company has established a high-performance R&D system using zebrafish technology in the above fields of raw material screening optimization, process, formula and quality control, and will continue to optimize and iteratively upgrade
it in the future.
At the supply chain marketing end, through the "double inspection" technology of zebrafish (detailed below, I will not repeat it here), Huante Biotech uses the characteristic advantages of zebrafish to "select and optimize"
raw materials and end products.
The launch of the health industry supply chain strict selection platform "Smart Fish Excellent Inspection" has provided a boost
for consumers to achieve the best of the best.
In terms of product function, relying on zebrafish biological detection and safety research and development technology, enterprises can carry out biological testing of raw materials, for raw material suppliers, Verified by Zebrafish excellent inspection awarded the efficacy test label is not only an affirmation of its quality, but also allows enterprises to break the shackles
of "wine aroma is afraid of deep alleys" 。 [4] Photo: "Zhiyu Excellent Inspection" (Image source: provided by the interviewee) The brand building is the embodiment of the vitality and continuity of the enterprise, and providing brand services based on quality verification and quality control improvement for enterprises that can truly "shine" is also one of
the businesses of Huante Biotech.
Using the relevant data of Huante's technology and output, relevant enterprises can IP-based
their own results.
In addition, Huante Biotech also cooperates with the National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment, the China Institute of Standardization and other institutions to jointly research and carry out the joint formulation and release of standards, and work with customers to promote brand building to a new level
.
At present, the 4 wholly-owned subsidiaries set up by Huante Biotech in Nanjing, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou and the commercial team business points in 12 provinces under construction are also helpful
for subsequent management and after-sales.
Li Chunqi said that Huante Biotech is building a "double inspection" system, combining the national statutory physical and chemical detection and non-targeted biological detection of zebrafish, and scientifically evaluating the safety and nutritional functions
of products in the whole process.
From the raw materials, this set of detection methods can screen out safe suppliers; Process-wise, it can help identify technologies
that preserve the nutrition, functionality and biosafety of raw materials.
Build a "two-layer" safety thread
.
Adhere to the road of professional and special innovation, build Huante Biotech into a great biotechnology company and talk about the future planning of the enterprise, Li Chunqi's thinking and logic are very clear
.
Entering the stage of rapid expansion of human and capital, Huante Biotech has high ambitions and becomes a great biotechnology company as a long-term goal, and landing in the capital market is a short-term goal
in the next few years.
Huante Biology insists on taking the road of specialization and newness in zebrafishIn terms of business, Huante Biotech will continue to cultivate in this field, continuously upgrade existing technologies, and use zebrafish to make a world in the field of health in China; Innovation is the vitality of the enterprise, maintaining an open mind is the consistent pursuit of Huante Biotechnology, Huante Biotechnology will combine China's industrial reality, maintain the spirit of innovation, and enhance the recognition of the country and the industry; Continuous investment in automation and intelligence is also a powerful measure for enterprises to improve human efficiency, through which Huante plans to increase human efficiency by 30%.

The improvement of service capabilities is the direction
of continuous efforts of Huante Biotech.
Based on market demand, through cooperation and integration, the company will establish a physical and chemical detection cell analysis system upstream of zebrafish, which can not only provide customers with the whole industry chain services based on zebrafish, but also provide them with a complete set of solutions
.
Li Chunqi, who has a background as a clinician, also plans to make efforts
in the field of precision medicine.
At present, Huante Biotech has basically broken through the relevant technical problems, is in the stage of sample bank accumulation, by connecting cancer case tissue blocks to zebrafish, in about 10 days, through the study of zebrafish generated data and results, can guide
the clinical plan.
Small zebrafish have great business opportunities, and the infinite future of China's big health industry may be seen
in zebrafish.
"This article is reproduced in 35 Dou public number, the original author | Chen Xinyu》