Y Combinator Startup Podcast Inside The Startup Reinventing America’s Trillion Dollar Chemical Industry
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Mar 20, 2026 
Gaurab Chakrabarti, Solugen CEO and former cancer researcher, joins Sean Hunt, Solugen CTO and chemical process inventor, for a look at turning biology plus chemistry into cleaner manufacturing. They talk about the cancer research spark, a scrappy PVC reactor, selling tiny batches to early buyers, scaling in Houston, and chasing a new future for American industry.
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How Solugen Fused Biology And Chemistry
- Solugen boosts chemical yields by pairing enzymes with metal catalysts instead of using either alone.
- Gaurab Chakrabarti says chemoenzymatic processing reached 96% yield at scale versus roughly 60% in traditional reactions.
The Pancreatic Cancer Enzyme Eureka Moment
- Solugen began when Sean Hunt's hydrogen peroxide project collided with Gaurab Chakrabarti's pancreatic cancer research.
- Gaurab found a mutated enzyme that creates peroxide around tumors, which became the key to industrial peroxide synthesis.
The Home Depot Reactor That Started Solugen
- Sean Hunt and Gaurab Chakrabarti used a $10,000 MIT prize to build their first reactor from Home Depot PVC.
- The seven-gallon loop ran corn syrup and enzyme through a bubble column and membrane to make peroxide manually.