Canberra scientist wins Australian Good Design award for CYBERTONGUE® invention
Dr Stephen Trowell (third from right) at the Australian Good Design awards
Biochemist Dr Stephen Trowell has a vision to help make Canberra a dynamic, world-leading, diversified innovation hub inspired by Silicon Valley. He's on the way to doing that, having just won a prestigious Australian Good Design award for his team’s CYBERTONGUE® invention that helps food processors keep their products fresh and safe. Editor Serina Bird chatted to him about the twists and turns in his entrepreneurial journey.
The Canberra mountain view
Dr Trowell came to Canberra on a 4-year PhD scholarship in biochemistry and ended up staying for 40 years. He knew little about Canberra, other than that the Australian National University was a prestigious university in his field – and had seen a photo of Canberra at dawn framed by mountains. Based on that photo, he felt that Canberra looked like ’the place where I wanted to study’.
His PhD was in the field of biochemical neurobiology, examining the biochemistry of visual transduction in invertebrates (i.e. animals without a backbone such as insects and crustaceans). Essentially, he examined how photons of light are converted into chemical signals that stimulate the brain and provide a perception. And it’s that early research he did on signal transduction that has led to bigger projects, including CYBERTONGUE®.
CSIRO
After completion of his PhD, Dr Trowell continued his work doing postdoctoral research at ANU. Then, he was invited to work at CSIRO. ‘People would start picking my brains about protein chemistry problems. And then they said, well, actually, it would be really good if you came and worked here,’ he recounted.
“I’ve always wanted to change the world with my science”
Dr Trowell enjoyed the transition away from pure research to applied outcomes. ‘This appealed to me because I’ve always wanted to change the world with my science,’ he said.
He worked in CSIRO's Entomology Division on the biochemistry of invertebrates. One of his projects involved developing diagnostic tests for cotton farmers based on biochemistry and immunology. His research helped farmers use the right pesticides.
The fact that people and companies were willing to pay to use his research expertise was especially meaningful. ‘I didn’t make a cent out of it beyond my salary – that was not the issue,’ he said. ‘But what I had done was so good that somebody was paying for it.’ He explained that as a scientist, he would publish papers and people would read them and quote them. But he was more focused on ensuring the science was being used. ‘My route is, well, does it make a difference to the world? And what’s the evidence for that?’ he said.
Canberra as the next Silicon Valley
Dr Trowell also worked on a project examining the potential pharmaceutical benefits of insects. He ran an exploratory project with an Australian company and had some successes in terms of patents, papers and some licences. However, the project petered out due to lack of investment funding. In the 1990s, Australia was full of innovative ideas, but it was hard to commercialise them domestically. He was told they would need to seek funding from the US but, while there was interest, US investment terms didn’t fit with CSIRO's guidelines at the time.
“Why couldn’t we have some of this in Canberra?”
After 5 years, the project didn’t develop commercially. But he learnt a lot from the experience – including what was happening in the US. He participated in a licensing road trip through Silicon Valley visiting biotech and pharmaceutical companies. The trip left a lasting impression. ‘We would drive through various parts of the Bay Area, and you just looked at the wall-to-wall tech, biotech and pharmaceutical companies,’ he said.
He thought: ‘Why couldn’t we have some of this in Canberra?’
Dr Trowell mused that Australia is one of the richest countries in the world because of its resources. But there is a risk because Australia has a non-diversified economy. Encouraging more innovation would ensure the economy diversified and continued to grow for future generations.
CSIRO’s Big Hairy Audacious Ideas
Former CSIRO CEO Geoff Garrett joined the organisation with a vision of pursuing Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs). He pushed CSIRO researchers to think big – and then commercialise their flagship ideas.
Dr Trowell was working in the Food Futures Flagship at CSIRO and was tasked with doing something around the objective measurement of flavour and aroma. The problem was that humans are often subjective when it comes to these things: we have good days and bad noses and genetic variations. One person might smell boronia flowers, while another cannot detect any aroma. And women tend to be more sensitive to olfactory stimuli than men.
But when making food, especially on a large scale, the industry needs to have a measure that doesn’t change. In other words, the sniff test for checking food and beverages isn't reliable. Dr Trowell’s team began to look at how they could build a machine to measure flavour and aroma. At the time, there were machines that sought to do this that were called electronic noses. They worked well in a lab-controlled environment but did not perform outside of it when the background environment was not consistent.
Have you ever been to an airport and seen the sniffer dogs at work searching for things like drugs and forbidden food such as cross-border bananas? Dr Trowell’s team established why such biological sensor receptors worked where engineered sensors fail. The key was in the properties of the proteins that evolved over billions of years to detect chemicals. So, he set about building a team to make a machine that incorporates protein sensors. This idea formed the basis for CYBERTONGUE®.
Wine, bombs and milk
The CSIRO Food Futures project was originally focused on the wine industry to help winemakers have an objective tool to measure problems or issues with the taste or quality of the wine. This could help overcome the ‘cellar palette’ problem of winemakers having trouble differentiating wine characteristics as they were tasting so many. ‘There were people in the wine industry who said, well, we would definitely use this. Some people outside the wine industry said it was denigrating the winemaker,’ he said. 'But that isn’t what the industry was telling us.'
While the project was developing well, technically, Dr Trowell’s funding bucket had sprung a big leak. So, he pivoted and obtained grants to work on defence problems.
“It’s a hard gig [being a solo founder]. And it’s hard because when people see that you’re the sole founder, they assume you will fail.”
At that time, Australia was involved in military operations in Afghanistan. Our troops were being blown up by improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and finding ways to identify them was a matter of national priority. Dogs could sniff out IEDs, but there weren’t enough dogs or dog handlers. With financial support from the Department of Defence, Dr Trowell’s team developed a prototype for sniffing out IEDs that they demonstrated to Australian and international observers in 2014.
However, Australia was winding down its combat operations in Afghanistan at this time. There was no longer any immediacy to go to the next stage and make the prototype field deployable.
Not to be deterred, Dr Trowell refocused again. He decided the team should focus on applying the technology to food, which also meant that it could be simplified. After a few years of work in this area, the team had developed tests for lactose and the proteases that spoil long-life milk. In 2018, Stephen founded PPB Technology Pty Ltd, which obtained a licence to use the technology for food applications. The defence applications stayed with CSIRO.
‘I was at that point in my life pretty financially secure, and I could do that sort of stuff,’ he said of his decision to leave CSIRO and start his own company.
While he has investors and mentors, he is the sole founder. ‘It’s a hard gig [being a solo founder]. And it’s hard because when people see that you’re the sole founder, they assume you will fail,’ he said. ‘But if you look at the statistics, actually, sole founders do perfectly well.’
Blue and green lights
Dr Trowell and his team’s invention uses bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) to measure protease. While there is a lot of science behind it, during the testing process, it’s easy to detect the protease by looking at green or blue lights. Dr Trowell demonstrates how the process works in this YouTube video.
Australian Good Design Award
Dr Trowell credits the grant and investment funding with enabling the team to go from a clunky prototype to a slick commercial product that won best in the medical and scientific equipment class at the September Australian Good Design Awards. The prestigious awards, which have been held for 65 years and are recognised as Australia’s peak international design endorsement program, have previously honoured Australian inventions such as the Cochlear Nucleus 24 hearing implant and Resmed.
The citation to the award describes Dr Trowell team’s invention, CYBERTONGUE®, as ‘a future-forward food testing system that allows for faster, more accurate food sample analysis. Using protein-based biosensors, CYBERTONGUE® tests liquid samples for a diverse range of low-level components. This helps food stay fresh on the supermarket shelves for longer – reducing waste, improving quality and saving money.’
The Canberra ecosystem
Dr Trowell described receiving Innovation Connect (ICON) grant funding as being ‘absolutely critical’ in the early stages of his startup. ‘But what really got me going was the GRIFFIN Accelerator,’ he said.
The GRIFFIN Accelerator program experience was ‘totally transformative’ for Dr Trowell. He admits that he had looked at it previously and decided not to apply. But the terms and conditions offered were much more attractive for the 2020 cohort, and that year, successful applicants were also fortunate to receive additional ACT Government funding that was provided during COVID. He was also matched with experienced angel investors, including 2022 Angel Investor of the Year Professor Tim Hirst, who helped guide and support him.
PPB Technology went on to receive a $60,000 Safe Note investment at the end of the GRIFFIN Accelerator program. At the time, this was the largest ever amount allocated by the GRIFFIN Trust. The company went on to raise $675,000 dollars in its initial funding round, largely through the support of its mentors and by being part of the Canberra Innovation Network community. PPB Technology was also awarded a $400,000 Accelerating Commercialisation grant.
Pitching at First Wednesday Connect
If you are headed to the last Canberra Innovation Network First Wednesday Connect of the year, then you may hear from Dr Trowell. He’s got a funding round on, and he will be pitching for investment. And he’s looking for a capable office manager to help drive his company to future success.
