How a rejected idea led a Townsville scientist to a global beauty deal
A humble $25 investment in barramundi fingerlings has defied all expectations to launch a potential biotech empire in North Queensland. Follow this JCU professor’s fascinating journey.
A Townsville scientist's $25 fish purchase has unexpectedly launched North Queensland towards becoming a biotech manufacturing hub capable of producing sustainable proteins that could be used in beauty products of the future.
Based at James Cook University since 2015, Associate Professor Lionel Hebbard’s career took a detour from “purely health-focused work towards entrepreneurial science” after a colleague suggested using cultured meat – meat produced by growing animal cells in a controlled environment – to support their research into muscle wasting.
After buying some barramundi fingerlings which were used to create cell lines (a population of cells that can be cultured in a laboratory indefinitely), the professor pitched the cultured meat concept to the CSIRO’s ON Prime accelerator program in 2022, but was told to go back and rethink the idea.
“We pivoted from cultured meat to using precision fermentation, where you use sugar to make protein components from Great Barrier Reef species,” Professor Hebbard said.
It led to the formation of biotech start up Infinite Bioworks, to develop high value collagen, seafood and leather from aquatic species, by harnessing unique proteins found in the biodiverse Great Barrier Reef, as well as sourcing carbon from local sugar mills to make into proteins.
It was during the professors’ visit to Singapore in 2024 as part of the CSIRO’s Venture Exchange Program that they were able to spark interest from a leading multinational company from brief conversation on the sidelines.
“A few weeks later, we had a Teams meeting where they asked how many tons of proteins we could produce. At the research stage, we were working in milligrams,” they said.
“Excitingly, they agreed to support a funding application, and we are now waiting on its outcome.”
Their JCU lab also received a $480,000 Australian Economic Accelerator Ignite Grant through a collaboration with CSIRO and a Singaporean cultured meat producer.
“We are now developing our proteins to grow fish cells for cultured meat and to make marine collagens for skin care,” they said.
“The skin care, beauty, and luxury goods sector offers substantial financial gains and the opportunity to introduce novel proteins that add significant value and avoid using animals.
“The marine-derived proteins we are producing could also have significant health applications in promoting wound healing and wound care. The challenge is to compete at cost and scale.”
Given the competition from other suppliers of collagen, challenge was on to demonstrate that the “green, incredibly pure, and sustainably sourced proteins offer superior value despite potentially higher costs”.
Professor Hebbard envisions establishing a biotech hub in North Queensland within five years, potentially through a Cooperative Research Centre at JCU.
The team is also working with a Torres Strait Indigenous adviser to explore how traditional medicinal knowledge might inform modern biotechnology applications.
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Originally published as How a rejected idea led a Townsville scientist to a global beauty deal
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