SAN DIEGO (PRWEB)
July 07, 2022

Debut Biotechnology, Inc., a biological innovation company at the forefront of advanced biomanufacturing technology, today announced a joint development agreement with GeneChem Inc., a Korean biotech company specialized in glycosylation technology. The companies will work together to develop a group of rare human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs). HMOs are emerging ingredients in infant formula and high-performance nutritional products, and their manufacturing represents one of the most noteworthy advancements in infant nutrition in recent years. Through this agreement, Debut Biotech and GeneChem plan to develop key technologies enabling the commercial production of rare HMOs for the infant formula and nutritional product markets.

HMOs are molecules that are found exclusively in human breast milk. They feed intestinal bacteria, acting as a prebiotic that supports infant immune system development, reducing disease risk and supporting growth. Recent breakthroughs have enabled the production of HMOs for inclusion in infant formula, with the first consumer product launched in 2016.

Through the third month of life, more than 50% of infants consume formula, underscoring the need for continued innovation in infant nutrition. The production of HMOs for commercial use in products, such as formula, is projected to continue well into the future. The market is forecasted to grow by a staggering CAGR of 22.7%, and a USD 556 million market by 2027.

“The scalable development of high-performance HMOs for a variety of nutritional products — including infant formula — represents a tremendous market opportunity,” said Dr. KM Cho, COO of GeneChem. “Debut Biotech’s technology platform is uniquely positioned to biomanufacture these molecules at the scale and economy required for widespread adoption and broad accessibility. Other companies using fermentation alone typically struggle on more complex ingredients. Debut solves this.”

The development of rare HMOs has been limited by traditional production methods, including fermentation, which is exceedingly labor intensive and only allows access to relatively simple and low value HMOs. As such, this method is unable to produce complex HMOs at a level of efficiency that would make products financially accessible to a large portion of those using infant formula. Debut Biotech’s hybrid approach uses a combination of fermentation and cell-free biomanufacturing to create rare and high-performance products, like HMOs, at the scale and price point required for delivery across markets.

“Our hybrid biomanufacturing approach enables commercial-level production of rare ingredients in a way that no other processes can,” said Joshua Britton, CEO of Debut Biotech. “These types of high-performance ingredients, when manufactured and offered at the scale the market requires, will have a meaningful impact on human health. Our team is at the cutting edge of ensuring these ingredients can be produced on demand across a variety of products, and in turn, end consumers. For synthetic biology to create impact we must target more complex ingredients and overcome technical limitations in biology and on commercial scale.”

Debut Biotech will begin developing HMOs at their innovation center in San Diego. GeneChem will work closely with the Debut Biotech team in various aspects of production, including scale-up.

To learn more about Debut Biotech, visit debutbiotech.com.

Debut Biotech

Debut Biotech is unlocking and delivering high-performance ingredients through harnessing precision fermentation and cell-free bioconversions to overcome the bottlenecks associated with traditional biomanufacturing.

A cell-free approach delivers high value ingredients that cannot be made via fermentation alone. To overcome the limits of the cell, we eliminate the cell. This method leverages the most useful parts of the cell — such as enzymes — while those with limiting properties — like the cell wall — are removed. Our hybrid fermentation and cell-free approaches unlock latent markets, providing access to sustainably produced, natural ingredients with health benefits that no others can. We are committed to traversing the entire process, from ingredient discovery to the scaling of these products, for consumer markets.

GeneChem

GeneChem is one of the first-generation Korean bio-ventures, which is best known for being the world’s first mass producer of sialyllactoses as well as the first FDA GRAS approval for 3-Sialyllactose, a key oligosaccharide in human breast milk. This was made possible by its “One-pot Platform” technology, which is protected by a series of IPs.

GeneChem is currently building a dedicated commercial HMO manufacturing facility in Korea for global supply. GeneChem is also working on various new bio-active ingredients for nutrition, cosmetics as well as pharmaceuticals using its proprietary glycosylation technologies.

To learn more about GeneChem, visit http://www.genechem.co.kr

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