Aequor’s Discovery

Aequor is a biotech company whose solutions benefit heath and the environment, while boosting profits of most agro-industrial processes. Our innovative solutions contribute to safer, cleaner, and more sustainable products for consumers, industry and health.

The company was born out of a biotechnology breakthrough by Aequor’s co-founder Dr. Cynthia Burzell. She is a marine and medical microbiologist and SCUBA diver. She discovered natural materials from the coral reef environment. The materials have natural antibacterial and antibiofilm activity that can replace toxic biocides used today. 

Bacteria and fungi grow on all surfaces and inside consumer products, including soaps, cleaners, food, water, personal care products, cosmetics, etc. Antimicrobial preservatives and other chemicals are routinely added to these products, but they are so toxic that they are now under regulatory review, and some have already been banned. 

As a result, consumers and retailers demand “green chemical” substitutes for harmful chemicals we are exposed to every day.

Aequor brings non-toxic, eco-friendly, sustainable, and green natural solutions. The dispersants, surfactants, soaps, and cleaning agents make current products work better. The new antimicrobial biocides (in development) effectively also prevent biofilm formation and remove existing biofilm rapidly. Both improve the product’s performance and reduce the toxic load on ecosystems in our homes and bodies.

Aequor’s natural chemicals uniquely kill a broad spectrum of bacterial and fungal pathogens at all stages of growth - including biofilm (the first and often only resistance response of microorganisms). This is significant because every antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) pathogen and every biothreat on the CDC and WHO lists is a biofilm former – resistant to antimicrobials, antibiotics, immune responses, etc. These are the "Superbugs" for which there is no longer a cure.  

Aequor’s novel chemicals kill AMR Superbugs alone and also work in combination with obsolete antibiotics (like Penicillin).  This could provide rapid access to effective cures against pandemic threats and advance the urgent goals of antibiotic stewardship and One Health (combating AMR threats at all vectors of transmission: animals, humans, and the environment).

Biofilm forms thicker and faster in Space than on Earth, as the bacteria and fungi are stressed by radiation, the vacuum, low/no gravity and temperature swings.  After a 3-year project with the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Aequor's treatment was validated to be the only non-toxic remedy to eliminate biofilm and bacterial contamination from the water reuse/recycling system (ECLSS) used on board the International Space Station (ISS).  

Aequor won NASA's iTech Award in the Life Support Category

NASA presented a paper at 2019 International Conference on Engineering Science (ICES) 

“Aequor’s … antibacterial and antibiofilm inhibitor entirely eliminated microbial growth at the lowest concentration testing within the first day of large scale experimentation" and the single treatment lasted 15 months.

Ask us about the results of Aequor’s latest experiment, which was launched on SpaceX-26 to the ISS for further testing of our treatment in microgravity in November 2022.