Two Years Ago:
Bill Gates Backs Artificial Breast Milk Start-Up Promising To Lower Carbon Footprint Of Baby Formula
Alex Morrison June 19, 2020
With the dairy industry a major source of greenhouse gases, and as much as 10% of the global market estimated as going to the production of baby formula milk, the industry represents a significant carbon footprint. Which is by U.S. start-up Biomilq hopes to artificially produce ‘real’ human breast milk from cultured mammary epithelial cells.
Biomilq is making enough progress with the advanced biotech research involved to believe that it could have a commercially viable product within five years. And the company has also won over an impressive roster of backers, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
The company produced proof of concept for its plans back in February, with a process that produced both lactose and casein, two key components of human breast milk. Biomilq’s research is being funded by a $3.5 million investment, most of which has been contributed by a fund set up by the Microsoft chief, who is renowned for his philanthropy and backing of socially responsible and sustainable enterprise.
Lab-cultured meat start-ups have attracted a lot of publicity, and venture capital funding, over the past couple of years. That means the public have already been introduced to the concept, which will hopefully mean environmentally friendly lab-cultured dairy products will meet less consumer resistance when they eventually hit the shelves of supermarkets.
Plant-based faux meat products that very closely capture the taste, texture, look and even smell of real meat have been the early pace setters in the sector for alternatives to traditional animal products. Beyond Meat, which went public through an IPO in May last year.
The company’s share price rocketed to almost $235 from an IPO value of $25 over its first few months on the stock exchange. When the hype died down the Beyond Meat share price also fell back but never dropped below around $58 dollars and has now recovered to over $158. Beyond Meat’s faux burgers are already sold in Tesco stores and are also offered by the Honest Burger chain of restaurants. Impossible Foods is another richly-funded start-up in the same space.
The next wave of traditional animal products alternatives will be lab-cultured meat and dairy products. Finless Foods is developing lab-cultured seafood and Memphis Meats doing the same with chicken, duck and beef and is also backed by Mr Gates.
Biomilq’s founders are Michelle Egger, a food scientist, and Leila Strickland, a cell biologist. Ms Strickland struggled to breastfeed her now 10-year-old son when he was born prematurely. In an interview with Business Insider, she explains how that motivated her to look for a better solution than traditional baby formula:
With the dairy industry a major source of greenhouse gases, and as much as 10% of the global market estimated as going to the production of baby formula milk, the industry represents a significant carbon footprint. Which is by U.S. start-up Biomilq hopes to artificially produce ‘real’ human...
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From 2020
Bill Gates, Zuckerberg, Other Billionaires Invest in Environmentally-Friendly Artificial Breast Milk Cultured From Human Mammary
Carla Simmons Jun 20, 2020 05:16 AM EDT
A new and better breast milk alternative has arrived, and it claims to be helpful for the environment as well. The U.S. firm, BIOMILQ, is artificially producing human breast milk from cultured human mammary epithelial cells to be commercially available to consumers.
The start-up company has received $3.5 million from an investment fund that is co-founded by Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and Mark Zuckerberg. The fund was established to help prevent the ill effects of
climate change brought about by carbon emissions.
BIOMILQ is the first-ever company to produce artificial breastmilk from human mammary epithelial cells. Not only does it prove to be a healthier alternative than formula, but it also claims to be environment-friendly.
www.sciencetimes.com
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From 2022
A round of investment of 134 million, Biomilq "artificial breast milk" may be launched in 3 years
2022-05-13 01:46 HKT
"Artificial breast milk" is trying to subvert the traditional milk powder industry.
An American start-up called Biomilq is growing "breast milk" in the lab. Recently, its co-founder and chief scientific officer, Leila Strickland, said that it
is still three to five years away from bringing the product to market, when full commercialization of artificial breast milk is expected .
Leila Strickland said that Biomilq hopes to develop an "artificial breast milk" through cell culture technology to solve the difficulties caused by the inability to breastfeed newborns.
On October 20, 2021, Biomilq announced that it had received a $21 million (about 134 million RMB) Series A financing, led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures ( a sustainable venture capital company led by
Bill Gates ) and a Danish life science investment agency. Funding from Novo Holdings led the round.
1. "Breast milk" cultured with cells
In 2013, after hearing about the world's first lab-grown burger, Biomilq founder Leila Strickland had the idea of whether a similar technique could be used to grow breast milk-producing cells, according to CNN Business. [1] Thus began early research.
In 2016, Strickland stopped research and development due to lack of funds, and it was not until 2019 that it restarted the research and development of "artificial breast milk" with Michelle Eggers, a food scientist who worked at General Mills.
According to Biomilq, its products are primarily made using cells from human breast tissue and milk, which are donated by women in the local community.
Biomilq places cells in a cell culture medium, where they take up nutrients and proliferate, and when they reach sufficient numbers, they are placed in a bioreactor that simulates a breast environment, where cells absorb more nutrients and secrete milk components.
Breast milk is rich in human milk proteins, bioactive lipids, and human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), which support better immune development in children [2]. Globally, however, only a third of babies consume as much breast milk as experts recommend in their first six months, and many parents rely on formula to replace breast milk to fuel their newborns, the World Health Organization says. and nutrition.
The founder of Biomilq believes that although formula milk powder "can meet many nutritional needs", it cannot replicate the "complexity of human milk". She hopes that through "artificial breast milk", it can provide both nutrition for children and the practicality of formula milk powder. .
Strickland said the "breast milk" in his experiments contained oily proteins, complex carbohydrates, fatty acids and other bioactive lipids known to be abundant in abundance, closely matching the types and proportions of ingredients present in breast milk.
However, Biomilq does not consider "artificial breast milk" a "breast milk substitute".
Biomilq technical consultant Jennifer Smilowitz said frankly: "The composition and structure of breast milk is very complex, so it cannot be replicated outside of lactation." For example, breast milk comes from a personalized immune system, and it is difficult to make a standard version in the laboratory.
Biomilq technical advisor Zakiyah Williams said: "While Biomilq is not a substitute for breast milk, it has important implications for other families who cannot breastfeed, such as adoptive families, babies with allergies and biological parents with contraindications."
Currently, Biomilq faces many challenges.
On the one hand, breast cells need to be cultured at a lower cost and on a larger scale to achieve commercialization; on the other hand, various tests need to be passed to convince the public of the safety and efficacy of the product.
2. The cell culture technology behind "artificial breast milk"
Biomilq isn't the first company to experiment with "artificial breast milk."
As early as 2013, 108Labs in the United States used human breast to develop human milk protein. 108Labs uses a similar technology to Biomilq, mainly in vitro culture of lactating cells in cell culture medium. In 2021, 108Labs announced the development of Colostrupedics whole human infant formula with secreted antibodies, which is undergoing preclinical safety and efficacy studies.
Turtle Tree, a Singaporean company established in 2019, extracts stem cells from human or bovine milk and purifies them from the milk-culture liquid mixture to obtain the target product. The company has said that its main research goal is high-quality breast milk first, with cow's milk second.
New York-based startup Helaina is focusing on the protein composition of breast milk, with the goal of replicating the immune-equivalent proteins found in breast milk.
Laura Katz, founder of Helaina, once said: "We have seen a lot of innovation and progress in the field of alternative meat and dairy products, but infant formula has been stagnant for decades."
Helaina uses a "fermentation + programming" approach by using yeast cultures to generate a unique microbial community that develops protein types and ratios similar to those found in breast milk, which are then mixed into a nutrient liquid. Currently, Helaina's products are under development.
In 2021, Israeli food technology startup Wilk (formerly known as Bio Milk) went public in Israel, becoming the world's first listed cell culture dairy company.
Founded in 2018, Wilk uses mammary gland cells to develop laboratory-grown milk. At the same time, Wilk is also using similar research methods to develop "artificial breast milk". In 2022, its Bio Milk technology received U.S. patent approval to produce animal and breast milk based on mammary gland cell replication.
Wilk's business model is primarily about partnering with companies to develop a variety of specific milk ingredients for use in infant formula and other dairy products. Currently, Wilk is exploring technologies for mass-producing mammary milk, hoping to provide a low-cost and environmentally friendly alternative to animal dairy products.
3. Bill Gates and "Artificial Food"
It is worth mentioning that in the latest round of financing of Biomilq, Bill Gates appeared again.
The Breakthrough Energy Fund is an energy research and investment company led by Bill Gates in 2016, and it also includes Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
In 2021, in his book "Climate Economy and the Future of Humanity", Bill Gates talks about the feeding of edible animals starting from Hamburg, and proposes that by finding alternative foods and reducing waste, the process of human food production can be reduced. of greenhouse gas emissions.
At present, Bill Gates has invested in or supported "artificial food" in various ways, including food technology start-ups such as Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, Nature's Fynd, Hampton Creek, Sustainable Bioproducts, etc.
In May 2019, Beyond Meat was listed on Nasdaq, becoming the "first stock of artificial meat".
The fungal protein produced by Nature's Fynd is derived from the natural microorganisms in Yellowstone Park, from which the company has grown Fy™ through a fermentation technology and made various vegan foods.
Hampton Creek is the predecessor of Eat Just. At present, Eat Just has launched two product lines, Just Egg (plant eggs) and Good Meat (cell cultured meat).
In recent years, "artificial food" has attracted the attention of the market, and plant meat and cell cultured meat have gradually become well known. Among them, plant-based food has attracted large companies and start-ups to compete on the same stage, which is very common, but from the perspective of consumers, there are still shortcomings in terms of taste and price.
Although cell-grown breast milk and meat are actually extracted from animals compared to plant meat, there is still a long way to go before they can be found on our dining table. Research and development costs, market supervision, and consumer acceptance, All are tests.
At present, some companies have made staged progress.
Yaakov Nahmias, founder of Israeli cellular meat company Future Meat Technologies, once used the Tesla Model X as an example: “In seven years, we managed to reduce the cost of a burger by a factor of 28,000. Can you imagine anything else in the world that would depreciate by a factor of 28,000? "
In 2021, Singapore approved U.S. start-up Eat Just to sell lab-grown chicken in Singapore in diced meat for $50 each.
So the question is, will you let your child drink laboratory-grown "artificial breast milk"?
Oldest on Ak pipeline after 8 yrs in Army, youngest was top Alaska runner, valedictorian, teacher, cop. …But I can’t imagine the trouble moms are facing today. I noted in the grocery down here in FL there was NO formula on the shelves in Publix.
