Atacama Biomaterials is a startup combining structure, machine studying, and chemical engineering to create eco-friendly supplies with a number of functions. Passionate about sustainable innovation, its co-founder Paloma Gonzalez-Rojas SM ’15, PhD ’21 highlights right here how MIT has supported the undertaking by a number of of its entrepreneurship initiatives, and displays on the function of design in constructing a holistic imaginative and prescient for an increasing enterprise.
Q: What function do you see your startup enjoying within the sustainable supplies area?
A: Atacama Biomaterials is a enterprise devoted to advancing sustainable supplies by state-of-the-art expertise. With my co-founder Jose Tomas Dominguez, now we have been engaged on growing our expertise since 2019. We initially began the corporate in 2020 underneath one other title and obtained Sandbox funds the following 12 months. In 2021, we went by The Engine’s accelerator, Blueprint, and altered our title to Atacama Biomaterials in 2022 throughout the MITdesignX program.
This expertise now we have developed permits us to create our personal knowledge and materials library utilizing synthetic intelligence and machine studying, and serves as a platform relevant to numerous industries horizontally — biofuels, organic medication, and even mining. Vertically, we produce cheap, regionally sourced, and environmentally pleasant bio-based polymers and packaging — that’s, naturally compostable plastics as a flagship product, together with AI merchandise.
Q: What motivated you to enterprise into biomaterials and located Atacama?
A: I’m from Chile, a rustic with a phenomenal, wealthy geography and nature the place we are able to see all the issues stemming from business, waste administration, and air pollution. We named our firm Atacama Biomaterials as a result of the Atacama Desert in Chile — one of many locations the place you possibly can greatest see the celebrities on the earth — is changing into a plastic dump, as many different locations on Earth. I care deeply about sustainability, and I’ve an emotional attachment to cease these issues. Considering that manufacturing accounts for 29 p.c of world carbon emissions, it’s clear that sustainability has a job in how we outline expertise and entrepreneurship, in addition to a socio-economic dimension.
When I first got here to MIT, it was to develop software program within the Department of Architecture’s Design and Computation Group, with MIT professors Svafa Gronfeldt as co-advisor and Regina Barzilay as committee member. During my PhD, I studied machine-learning strategies simulating pedestrian movement to grasp how individuals transfer in area. In my work, I might use a lot of plastics for 3D printing and I couldn’t cease occupied with sustainability and local weather change, so I reached out to materials science and mechanical engineering professors to look into biopolymers and degradable bio-based supplies. This is how I met my co-founder, as we have been each working with MIT Professor Neil Gershenfeld. Together, we have been a part of one of many first groups on the earth to 3D print wooden fibers, which is troublesome — it’s sluggish and costly — and rapidly pivoted to sustainable packaging.
I then received a fellowship from MCSC [the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium], which gave me freedom to discover additional, and I finally acquired a postdoc in MIT chemical engineering, guided by MIT Professor Gregory Rutledge, a polymer physicist. This was sudden in my profession path. Winning Nucleate Eco Track 2022 and the MITdesignX Innovation Award in 2022 profiled Atacama Biomaterials as one of many rising startups in Boston’s biotechnology and climate-tech scene.
Q: What is your course of to develop new biomaterials?
A: My PhD analysis, coupled with my background in materials growth and molecular dynamics, sparked the belief that rules I studied simulating pedestrian movement may additionally apply to molecular engineering. This connection could appear unconventional, however for me, it was a pure development. Early in my profession, I developed an instinct for supplies, understanding their mechanics and physics.
Using my expertise and abilities, and leveraging machine studying as a expertise leap, I utilized the same conceptual framework to simulate the trajectories of molecules and discover potential functions in biomaterials. Making that parallel and shift was superb. It allowed me to optimize a state-of-the-art molecular dynamic software program to run twice as quick as extra conventional applied sciences by my algorithm offered on the International Conference of Machine Learning this 12 months. This is essential, as a result of this type of simulation normally takes per week, so narrowing it down to 2 days has main implications for scientists and business, in materials science, chemical engineering, laptop science and associated fields. Such work vastly influenced the inspiration of Atacama Biomaterials, the place we developed our personal AI to deploy our supplies. In an effort to mitigate the environmental affect of producing, Atacama is concentrating on a 16.7 p.c discount in carbon dioxide emissions related to the manufacturing technique of its polymers, by the usage of renewable power.
Another factor is that I used to be skilled as an architect in Chile, and my diploma had a design element. I believe design permits me to grasp issues at a really excessive degree, and the way issues interconnect. It contributed to growing a holistic imaginative and prescient for Atacama, as a result of it allowed me to leap from one expertise or self-discipline to a different and perceive broader functions on a conceptual degree. Our design method additionally meant that sustainability got here to the middle of our work from the very starting, not only a plus or an added value.
Q: What was the function of MITdesignX in Atacama’s growth?
A: I’ve recognized Svafa Grönfeldt, MITdesignX’s school director, for nearly six years. She was the co-advisor of my PhD, and we had a mentor-mentee relationship. I like the truth that she created an area for individuals enthusiastic about enterprise and entrepreneurship to develop throughout the Department of Architecture. She and Executive Director Gilad Rosenzweig gave us incredible recommendation, and we obtained vital assist from mentors. For instance, Daniel Tsai helped us with mental property, together with an important patent for Atacama. And we’re nonetheless in contact with the remainder of the cohort. I actually like this “design your company” method, which I discover fairly distinctive, as a result of it provides us the chance to mirror on who we wish to be as designers, technologists, and entrepreneurs. Studying person insights additionally allowed us to grasp the broad applicability of our analysis, and align our imaginative and prescient with market calls for, finally shaping Atacama into an organization with a holistic perspective on sustainable materials growth.
Q: How does Atacama method scaling, and what are the speedy subsequent steps for the corporate?
A: When I take into consideration conducting our imaginative and prescient, I really feel actually impressed by my 3-year-old daughter. I would like her to expertise a world with timber and wildlife when she’s 100 years outdated, and I hope Atacama will contribute to such a future.
Going again to the designer’s perspective, we designed the entire course of holistically, from feedstock to materials growth, incorporating AI and superior manufacturing. Having proved that there’s a demand for the supplies we’re growing, and having examined our merchandise, manufacturing course of, and expertise in important environments, we are actually able to scale. Our degree of technology-readiness is corresponding to the one utilized by NASA (degree 4).
We have proof of idea: a biodegradable and recyclable packaging materials which is cost- and energy-efficient as a clear power enabler in large-scale manufacturing. We have obtained pre-seed funding, and are sustainably scaling by making the most of accessible assets all over the world, like repurposing equipment from the paper business. As offered within the MIT Industrial Liaison and STEX Program’s latest Sustainability Conference, not like our rivals, now we have cost-parity with present packaging supplies, in addition to low-energy processes. And we additionally proved the demand for our merchandise, which was an necessary milestone. Our subsequent steps contain strategically increasing our manufacturing capabilities and analysis amenities and we’re presently evaluating constructing a manufacturing facility in Chile and establishing an R&D lab plus a producing plant within the U.S.