Inkmunotattoo: the Chilean biotech that develops a topical to erase tattoos without the need for medical procedures
Tattooing in Chile is already an everyday thing. According to studies, about 4 out of every 10 people in the country between the ages of 25 and 34 already have one, and on average they have three tattoos per capita. But just as submitting to the needle and ink is usual, the phenomenon of regretting it is also a daily occurrence, to the point that it is internationally estimated that 60% of people regret one of their tattoos after five years of doing it.
Nowadays there are services that support the removal of tattoos, increasingly demanded procedures that require expert supervision and laser treatments. However, in Chile, a scientific startup is working to develop a product that does the same thing, but without the need for supervision or scheduled treatments: a “simple” topic.
This is Inkmunotattoo, a biotech founded by Francisca Tolmo Archile (CEO) and Brian Rojas Aguirre (CTO), both Biotechnology Engineers from the Andrés Bello University.
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As its founder tells Entreprenerd, her project consists of “an active ingredient capable of interacting with the pigment of black ink. It binds to the pigment and generates a reaction, degrading it into small pieces, and eventually doing it in its entirety.”
From the lab to the cell
The biotechnologist explains that to date they have already managed to verify the efficacy of their active ingredient against the pigment of black ink under laboratory conditions, and that in 2024 the challenge is to take its development to testing in the cell, or with humans.
But to better understand, why is tattoo ink permanent? When we get a tattoo, the needles of the machine produce a wound in the skin that activates the immune system. This is where the cells responsible for eliminating and preventing the proliferation of ink by the body, the macrophages, come into action. These fighters encapsulate the pigments in the ink, but because they are insoluble and large, the macrophages are unable to expel the pigment and remain inside the cell. And when it dies, it expels the pigment and again the macrophage comes to encapsulate it. That endless loop or cycle is what ensures the persistence of the tattoo.
The topic that Inkmunotattoo is designing seeks to be a serum, gel or cream that breaks that cycle, achieving the gradual degradation and erasure of the tattoo in a matter of weeks. The CEO of the startup explains that “all inks have different pigments, so in the first instance we will focus on black ink tattoos, which are the most common.”
After obtaining a Corfo seed, the startup had funds to buy the supplies, operate in some laboratories of the UNAB, and validate the reaction caused by the active ingredient in the pigment. Now, Tolmo emphasizes that “we hope to be awarded a fund of 120 thousand dollars (Startup Ciencia) to work at least 12 months developing the technology, to reach a TRL4 or 5 and reach a formulation that can be patented. We hope to be able to submit a provisional patent to INAPI by 2024.”
“In the medium term, we hope to be able to sell the product directly to the first interested customers nationwide and begin to scale the technology. In the long term, we hope to be able to enter the international market. Our first international target will be the U.S. tattoo removal market,” the startup concludes.