Pembient is a biotech company in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

, Washington, United States that was founded with the goal of creating

bioengineered Biological engineering or bioengineering is the application of principles of biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible, economically-viable products. Biological engineering employs knowledge and expertise from a number o ...

wildlife products to fight

poaching Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set ag ...

around the world.

History

Pembient was founded in January 2015. Mathew Markus and George Bonaci discussed the possibility of

reverse engineering Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompli ...

and bioengineering wildlife products specifically rhino horn. Markus first thought of reverse engineering rhino horn 10 years ago when he read of the severity of the

black market A black market, underground economy, or shadow economy is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by noncompliance with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the ...

poaching industry, 1,200

rhinos A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species o ...

were killed in South Africa in 2014, and the western black rhinos were declared extinct by the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natur ...

(IUCN). January 2015, it was announced that Pembient had been admitted to the inaugural class of Indiebio in San Francisco, a three-month business accelerator program awarding $50,000 and mentoring to biotech start-ups using

synthetic biology Synthetic biology (SynBio) is a multidisciplinary area of research that seeks to create new biological parts, devices, and systems, or to redesign systems that are already found in nature. It is a branch of science that encompasses a broad ran ...

. In August 2017 Pembient launched its

initial coin offering An initial coin offering (ICO) or initial currency offering is a type of funding using cryptocurrencies. It is often a form of crowdfunding, although a private ICO which does not seek public investment is also possible. In an ICO, a quantity of cr ...

of PembiCoin which is a blockchain-based token that allows its holder to take delivery of one gram of biofabricated horn in the year 2022
As of 2018, the company
was continuing their plan to flood the market with synthetic rhino horn to help end poaching.

Mission

The goal of the company is to bioengineer rhino horn and

elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae ...

ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals ...

tusk
replacement products
below the black market price in order to stop the threat to endangered species. One of their current projects is the creation of a synthetic rhino horn using techniques that replicate rhino DNA. Bonaci has stated that even though they are focused on one biochemical product, "Maybe in the future we'll do

tissue engineering Tissue engineering is a biomedical engineering discipline that uses a combination of cells, engineering, materials methods, and suitable biochemical and physicochemical factors to restore, maintain, improve, or replace different types of biologi ...

rwhatever works for the market."

References

{{Reflist, 30em Companies based in Seattle American companies established in 2015 2015 establishments in Washington (state) Biotechnology companies of the United States