2nd prize BIOPOLYMER Award 2023

In addition to life-saving cells that are indispensable for research, laboratories around the world now also produce around ten million tons of plastic waste per year, and the trend is rising sharply. The team led by Green Elephant founders Felix Wollenhaupt and Joel Eichmann are now countering this trend with their revolutionary CellScrew® technology. In contrast to the cell culture bottles previously made primarily from petroleum-based polystyrene, CellScrew® is made entirely from bio-based PLA (polylactide). In addition, one CellScrew® system replaces up to 450 conventional cell culture bottles. This is made possible by an ingenious design that also radically simplifies handling in the laboratory: an Archimedean screw in the bottle, in combination with concentric cylinders, not only ensures continuous transport of the cell culture medium during rolling storage, but also creates a huge internal surface area compared to previous systems - with 80 percent less material used.
The jury was particularly impressed by the consistency with which the Giessen-based start-up founders, who became plastics processors as career changers, exploit the advantages of the material. This includes the high biocompatibility of PLA as well as the fact that the material can be excellently processed in 3D printing. And if, like conventional cell culture bottles, CellScrew® is incinerated rather than recycled or composted after single use for sterility reasons, the bio-based material has another advantage: Unlike fossil-based materials, hardly any more greenhouse gas is released in the process than the plants that served as raw materials previously removed from our atmosphere.

Green Elephant Biotech GmbH
Kerkraderstr. 9
35394 Gießen