Phenbiox: Knowledge Transfer

Phenbiox was founded in 2006 within the Industrial Chemistry and Materials Department of Bologna University. Some researchers of the Industrial Biochemistry Group with extensive experiences in the fields of the research and the industrialization of biotechnological processes, decided to apply their knowledge to create a high tech enterprise to produce and sell a new generation of natural active principles. The technical and scientific competences that characterize Phenbiox lead to a high flexibility in researching and developing novel products to satisfy all the different needs of the cosmetics market.

In November 2006 Phenbiox was finally constituted as an enterprise characterised its connection with the University. The know how, developed by the researchers and owned by the University, was handed over to Phenbiox by the University in order to exploit it commercially. The researchers are hosted in the University laboratory in order to perform more research and develop new products to be commercialised by Phenbiox.

For example, in 2008 PhenBiox was awarded a three-year research grant worth € 48m for a development project in the field of food supplements.
The three young researchers who founded the company are continuing in undertaking their research in their laboratories near Roveri, specialising in the field of active ingredients for cosmetics. Their products do not use solvents, but use only natural methods based on fruit and vegetables molecules with which to create active creams and other cosmetics.

Phenbiox, developed new bio-technological processes that allow to liquefy plant materials completely in water. These processes have a low environmental impact and allow for reuse of agri-food biomass lowering the environmental burden of some food making processes. The application of this knowledge has had significant impact on the cosmetics industry.

A major strength lies in the quality of the initial university research, aiming to minimise the environmental impact of agro-industrial by-products re-used for obtaining new materials with high added value for the cosmetics industry.