Firm taps goodness of human milk with cell-based tech


A biotech start-up based here and in the United States is on a mission to unlock the key ingredients from human milk to enhance infant and elderly nutrition, and nourish athletes.

Nutrients in human milk are especially beneficial for strengthening immunity, improving gut health and boosting brain development, said Ms Lin Fengru, co-founder of the start-up, TurtleTree.

“Compared with cow’s milk, human milk contains five times higher amounts of lactoferrin, a protein with various functions from antimicrobial to immune regulation,” she added.

Among the over 2,000 ingredients in milk is a class of molecules called human milk oligosaccharides, which is known to improve the gut health of adults and the elderly. Other human milk ingredients can enhance the nutrition for sportsmen, helping them perform better.

In the past year, TurtleTree has been pioneering cell-based technologies to create nutrition blends and ingredients from milk.

TurtleTree is known as the first company in the world to work on making milk from mammary cells, without the need for humans or animals.

Last year, the firm won $1 million in funding after winning The Liveability Challenge, a global competition that aims to find innovative solutions to urban challenges.

To create cell-based milk, mammary cells are immersed in an in-house lactation solution. By creating an environment for the cells that mimic the body of mammals, the cells convert the lactation solution into milk.

While the start-up will produce cow’s milk from cells in the future to reduce the reliance on unsustainable dairy farming, it is currently focusing on extracting the key nutrients and ingredients from human milk.

Before producing cell-based milk, it has to solve current hurdles faced by the cell-based food industry, such as regulatory and price parity, said Ms Lin.

The cell-based protein sector, which includes cell-cultured meat and cell-based milk, is mainly in its infancy and research and development stages.

BENEFICIAL NUTRIENTS

Ms Lin said: “We are creating a new category that is unlocking access to the naturally occurring ingredients… This strategy will set us apart from existing companies who are focusing on using cell-based methods to produce (cattle) milk products that are commodities, as they face significant challenges in scalability and regulatory compliance.”

In an interview with The Straits Times in April, Ms Lin said the cell-based meat sector here is more mature than the cell-based milk sector.

Last December, Singapore became the first country to approve the sale of a cultured meat product – chicken bites by Californian firm Eat Just.

To unlock the nutrients and ingredients in milk, one method TurtleTree uses involves microbes cultivated in fermentation tanks to act as factories to produce the ingredients.

The company is planning to launch its first blend of performance ingredients from human milk soon.

TurtleTree is also working to bring down the cost of cell-cultured protein.

The main cost drivers of these novel meats and milk are the growth factors that help the cells grow and multiply.

Some commercially available growth factors can cost up to $2,000 a litre. Many start-ups and researchers are racing to make their own growth factors, including TurtleTree.

Early this year, the firm launched an arm that is developing its own liquid growth factors for cell-based meats and lactating cells.

“We aim to scale up production of the food-grade growth factors for the cellular agriculture industry and push down their cost by 100 times or more in the next two to five years,” said Ms Lin.

“Ensuring the low cost of growth media for cell culture is vital for the industry’s expansion.”





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