How can I help grow scientific entrepreneurship in Brazil?

While earning his dental degree from the University of Brasilia, João Paulo Lungo joined the Scientific Institutional Scholarship Program in Brazil (PIBIC), which gives undergraduate students the opportunity to join research projects. This experience ignited his passion for research, leading him to leave dentistry and pursue a doctorate degree, where the manager of a cosmetics company asked for his help with product development.

These early career experiences, along with a course on revolutionary innovation at Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts, fueled his ambition to become a science entrepreneur.

Longo now works as a nanotechnology researcher at the University of Brasilia, a role that he combines with his position as founder and researcher at Glia Innovation, a cosmetics company in Goiânia.

I switched from dentistry to nanotechnology. How and why did this happen?

I worked as a dentist for three years after graduating, but my previous involvement with PIBIC, which I took part in as an undergraduate in 2003, inspired me to begin a research career and pursue my Master’s and PhD degrees.

My doctoral research was about applying photodynamic therapy – a drug activated by light – to treat oral infections in a clinical study involving 12 participants. It gave me an understanding of how basic science can be used to solve practical problems. At that time, translational medicine, the practice of transferring scientific discoveries from the laboratory to clinical settings for the benefit of human health, was not widespread in Brazil.

What prompted you to combine academia and entrepreneurship?

In 2010, two years into my doctoral program, Leila Velez, founder of Belleza Natural, a cosmetics company in Rio de Janeiro, invited me to develop nanotechnology products, including nanostructured oils developed from biodiverse sources in Brazil. I was recommended by a friend who works at the Brazilian National Confederation of Industry in Brasilia. It was an unlikely connection, because at that time my field was nanotechnology and dentistry. We have adapted some techniques in the field of cosmetics.

Five years later, I was in an academic role, teaching nanobiotechnology at the University of Brasilia and feeling dissatisfied with my career. Moments of eureka were rare, as were opportunities to apply scientific knowledge to solve real-world problems. I felt that academia was becoming increasingly competitive: success was linked to metrics, not practical application of knowledge, and researchers were judged primarily on publication numbers.

So, in 2018, I joined the Industrial Academic Training Programme, a joint initiative of the Brazilian and Swiss governments supported by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development and SwissNex, a global network aimed at strengthening Switzerland’s image as an innovation hotspot. The program taught me innovation concepts, such as minimum viable products (MVPs). These are the basic releases of new products and are released to customers to get their feedback.

I deepened my understanding of innovation through an online course at Harvard Business School, focused on revolutionary strategy and innovation. It was led by Clay Christensen, a business consultant and academic who developed the theory of disruptive innovation – where a product or service gradually displaces established competitors after starting at the bottom of the market.

I was spending a lot of time interacting with science entrepreneurs and attending industry events, which is where I first learned about a problem cosmetics companies were facing in Brazil. They were importing nanoparticles used to deliver active ingredients through the skin. One German supplier to one company imposed a minimum supply quantity of 50 kilograms. In 2018, I was contracted by Cosmefar, a company located in Aparecida de Goiania, Brazil, to produce smaller quantities, after a mutual friend introduced me to the company’s co-founder, pharmacist Guilherme Alves Ferreira.

After working on this project and others, I founded Nanoceuticals in 2018 with Nicolas Camargo, a chemist at the University of Brasilia. The company develops nanoparticles for cosmetics, health products and pharmaceuticals. It was a low-risk project, as we were not dependent on venture capital. Instead, we used our own resources, revenue, and personal finances to operate and scale the business, increasing client after client.

How have the COVID-19 pandemic and its repercussions affected businesses?

We were starting to expand the team, when suddenly our sales dropped to zero. We have innovated using our technology to develop a polymer to replace Carbopol, the main ingredient in alcohol-based hand gel. They have been sold almost all over Brazil. We generated a year’s worth of revenue in four weeks, before Carboball returned to the show.

As the company expanded, we wanted to gain broader expertise in peptide science, because of their key function in human health (peptides are short chains of amino acids that act as the building blocks of protein).

In 2022, Nanoceuticals merged with Plateinnove Biotechnology, a startup in Campinas founded five years ago by molecular biologist Sheila Siqueira Andrade. We named it Glia Innovations, inspired by glial cells, which are key to supporting neural function – which stands for creating new ideas.

The merger was on an all-stock basis, with the owners of the target company being paid through shares of the acquiring company, without any cash.

Following the merger, we rapidly expanded our business and began clinical trials in Brazil, including trials of anti-wrinkle and teeth-whitening treatments. We serve more than 80 clients in the cosmetics industry in Brazil, Peru, Colombia, the United States, Indonesia, South Korea and India.

How do your students benefit from your entrepreneurial background?

I combine my position at Glea with my academic position, and I see my role as a link between research, innovation and industry. The university runs courses in innovation and entrepreneurship for undergraduate and postgraduate students. All my lectures are based on translating science into real-world benefits with commercial potential.

Four new startups were created last year, and three students collaborated with companies to develop new patents and create products for various industries. One company is called CoilWhich uses nanotechnology to develop final cosmetic products. Another is BioDeva software company specializing in personalized digital solutions using artificial intelligence for the scientific community.

You could say we are shaping a generation of science entrepreneurs.