Marcos Vinícius Batista Nicolino

Marcos Nicolino is the co-Founder of Nerthus Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento. With a Masters degree in Materials Engineering, and Project Management respectively, he is pursuing a PhD in Sustainable Materials at UFSCar. Marcos has experience in business development, polymer research, and industrial innovation, having worked with companies like Nanobees and Innovare Chemicals.

His innovation, named BioNest, is a material to be offered to sows during the prepartum period, encouraging their natural nest-building behavior. The material is edible, and provides supplemental energy to the mother during labour. It poses no biosecurity risks, as the material comes from thermomechanical processing and quality control features. It is both water resistance to allow the sows to manipulate it and build the nest, as well as water-soluble to allow it to slowly disintegrate during manipulation as the birthing process progresses. The material is also biodegradable, leaving no harmful or persistent residue thereafter.