Congratulations to Phycin on finishing third at the 2026 BioHealth Capital Region Crab Trap Competition! The FITCI startup was one of six finalists picked from a record 82 applicants.
About the Crab Trap Competition
The Crab Trap Competition is held at the BioHealth Capital Region Forum. Life science companies pitch their technology and commercialization plans to a panel of investors and industry leaders. Each of this year’s six finalists had seven minutes to present and then took the panel’s questions. The finalists came from four U.S. states and France.
What Phycin Does
Phycin is redesigning a key building block of biotech: growth factors. These are the proteins that tell cells to grow and multiply. Labs need them to grow cells for regenerative medicine, cell research, and cultivated meat.
The problem is that standard growth factors are fragile, expensive, and often made with animal-derived ingredients. Phycin uses AI-driven protein engineering to design more stable versions and produces them without animal inputs. The goal is lower costs and more consistent results from batch to batch. Its flagship product, Ultrastable™ bFGF, is a longer-lasting version of one of the most widely used growth factors in cell culture.
Congratulations to founder and CEO Jun Wang, PhD, and the whole Phycin team. We can’t wait to see what comes next. Follow Phycin and learn more about their work at phycin.com.
