{"id":96146,"date":"2026-07-02T16:29:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T16:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/96146\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T16:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T16:29:13","slug":"why-this-canadian-entrepreneur-wants-to-rewrite-the-rules-of-infant-nutrition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/96146\/","title":{"rendered":"Why this Canadian entrepreneur wants to rewrite the rules of infant nutrition"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Laura Katz, CEO of Helaina, at her lab in New York City on Thursday.Kellyann Petry\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing like mother\u2019s milk. For years, infant formula makers have tried to match the health benefits of human milk. Thanks to a Canadian entrepreneur, they might just be closer.<\/p>\n

Toronto native Laura Katz, 34, is the founder and chief executive of Helaina, a New York-based startup whose mission is to create, scale and commercialize lactoferrin, an immune-supporting protein found in human milk. Now, after seven years of building her company, Ms. Katz\u2019s moment has arrived. <\/p>\n

Last month, food giant Nestl\u00e9 SA announced a multiyear partnership with Helaina to buy the ingredient and work together to advance infant nutrition.<\/p>\n

Helaina\u2019s mandate is to \u201cbring human bioactive proteins to every baby and adult in the world,\u201d Ms. Katz said in an interview from the company\u2019s New York office. <\/p>\n

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The fermentation process to make proteins for Helaina\u2019s products.Kellyann Petry\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Lactoferrin helps support immune function, iron metabolism and the gut. Supplemental versions of the protein until now came from cows, whose milk produces one-tenth of the amount of lactoferrin found in human breast milk. Using a process called precision fermentation, Helaina creates lactoferrin proteins \u201cbioidentical\u201d to those found in breast milk. <\/p>\n

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The company has for the first time made this kind of lactoferrin available at commercial scale, primarily to adults. Details about the partnership with Nestl\u00e9, which has a long history in baby formula and infant nutrition, are currently scarce.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a startup and have something really powerful here, but we need to work with players who can help amplify the value of this technology, and who already have the knowledge and the expertise,\u201d Ms. Katz said.<\/p>\n

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Matthew Cleere, scientist at Helaina, Ms. Katz and Vanessa Arcos, lab technician, measure RNA at the lab inside Helaina\u2019s office in New York City.Kellyann Petry\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Making human proteins is no small feat, which is why Ms. Katz says most companies have steered away from it. The molecular structure is complex, the manufacturing is expensive and the regulatory hurdles are high. <\/p>\n

But after seven years of work, 49 patents, 11 peer-reviewed papers and multiple completed clinical trials, Helaina has raised US$93-million in venture capital to make bioidentical lactoferrin available not just for infant nutrition, but for people of all ages. <\/p>\n

Ms. Katz knew from an early age she wanted to be a food scientist and told her parents that when she grew up, she wanted to \u201cfeed people.\u201d Her teen years consisted of selling baked goods from home to peers at her dance studio and entering Food Network Canada competitions.<\/p>\n

She became interested in the nutritional health benefits of breast milk in 2012, while studying food science and technology at Western University. Learning how women\u2019s bodies had evolved to create a therapeutic food product, she knew it was something she wanted to stay close to. <\/p>\n

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Ms. Katz at their New York City office.Kellyann Petry\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Three years later, Ms. Katz was on the subway in New York, where she had moved to pursue her master\u2019s in food studies, listening to a podcast about the black market for breast milk. <\/p>\n

The buyers weren\u2019t just parents, she learned, but bodybuilders, cancer patients and people from all walks of life, seeking the bioactive components of mother\u2019s milk. <\/p>\n

Lactoferrin is best known as a component of breast milk that helps build the lining of the gut, but the body continues to produce it throughout life as an iron-binding and transport protein. Ms. Katz said that people\u2019s internal production of this protein can change as their immune systems evolve with age. <\/p>\n

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\u201cMother\u2019s milk is the first superfood, so it\u2019s biologically designed for the gut in the immune system of a baby\u201d said Ms. Katz. \u201cIt\u2019s in your saliva, in your sweat, in your tears. It\u2019s all over.\u201d <\/p>\n

She\u2019s confident that lactoferrin could become a wellness product such as collagen or creatine \u2013 substances the body naturally produces, but which consumers are keen to supplement for their health and longevity. <\/p>\n

Perhaps, Ms. Katz thought, there was a way to bring lactoferrin to the masses by synthesizing a replacement for human breast milk.<\/p>\n

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Julian van der Made, Lead Fermentation Engineer and Ms. Katz running a fermentation process to make protein at their lab.Kellyann Petry\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Tom Williams, the sole general partner of Heron Rock Fund, a family office investing platform, has received a lot of cold messages on LinkedIn. Ms. Katz popped up in his inbox in September, 2019, and he was taken by her \u201ctremendous passion for feeding the world.\u201d Shortly after, they met at Battery Park and started discussing an idea that would morph into what Helaina is today. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, an entrepreneur that is driven by deep meaning and purpose is the best type of entrepreneur to back, and so it was very clear to me that this was her life\u2019s mission,\u201d said Mr. Williams, who wrote his first $500,000 cheque for the company in October, 2019. <\/p>\n

After founding Helaina in mid-2019, Ms. Katz and a small team spent three years developing a version of lactoferrin that matched the structure and function of the human protein. Precision fermentation, the company\u2019s core technology, involves engineering yeast cells to produce the protein. This was initially a prolonged process, given it can take up to two weeks for the yeast to grow. <\/p>\n

Their next goal was to ensure the same result was equivalent at a larger, industrial scale, so they could move into the regulatory and clinical work necessary to bring the ingredient to consumers. <\/p>\n

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Julian van der Made pulling a sample from the fermentation at the Helaina lab.Kellyann Petry\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

By 2025, Helaina was ready to take its branded lactoferrin, Effera, to market. The bioidentical protein is now licensed to adult nutrition and supplement brands to incorporate into products such as powders, capsules and gummies. It is not yet available for infant formula.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis protein plays such a critical role in our health, and we now, for the first time, can replicate it and bring it to the diet,\u201d said Ms. Katz. <\/p>\n

Effera is meant to support iron metabolism, immune function, gut health and healthy aging. But Helaina also sees applications in women\u2019s health, active nutrition and with the Nestl\u00e9 partnership, infant nutrition.<\/p>\n

Ms. Katz\u2019s lack of prior commercial work experience before Helaina makes it even more \u201cmind blowing\u201d to Mr. Williams that she is the most \u201cnaturally gifted CEO\u201d that he\u2019s ever seen in a founder. In addition to her scientific expertise, he said she has carefully picked her team and has the drive required to control profit.<\/p>\n

This is what Mr. Williams says attracted Nestl\u00e9, one of the world\u2019s largest makers of infant food products, to Helaina. Where large companies conduct exhaustive searches for innovation startups only to find unsubstantiated claims, Ms. Katz has always been focused on the food science. <\/p>\n

Helaina has run several clinical studies examining lactoferrin\u2019s effects on inflammation, iron levels, gut health and more \u2013 some of those trials going beyond necessary requirements for supplements. It has also compared the effects of the lab-produced protein with those of lactoferrin found in cow\u2019s milk. Ms. Katz believes when you\u2019re bringing innovation to people \u2013 especially infants \u2013 no stone can be left unturned.<\/p>\n

Nestl\u00e9 \u201chas always been at the forefront of advancing scientific knowledge on key nutrients and bioactives that are important during early life, including their interactions with the gut microbiome and the immune system,\u201d said Isabelle Bureau\u2011Franz, head of the Nestl\u00e9 Product Technology Center for Nutrition & Health, in an e-mailed statement. <\/p>\n

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Kellyann Petry\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

With 40 people behind the startup \u2013 mostly scientists, nutritionists and molecular biologists \u2013 Helaina hopes to remain \u201csmall and nimble\u201d as it grows. <\/p>\n

Ms. Katz would like to expand Helaina into her home country of Canada, and perhaps even locate a manufacturing site there. Currently, the product is manufactured in New York. <\/p>\n

While she can\u2019t say much, Ms. Katz said she is in conversations with Health Canada to begin the approval process. <\/p>\n

Asked why she decided to build Helaina in the U.S. and not Canada \u2013 as a growing number of Canadian entrepreneurs have chosen to do in recent years \u2013 she said New York\u2019s \u201chustle and pace\u201d suited her drive to grow, and provided ready access to venture capital financiers. <\/p>\n

But she complimented the Canadian government\u2019s recently adopted biomanufacturing strategy, focused on building an innovative life sciences sector. Paired with free trade agreements, she thinks it could \u201cmake Canada such an interesting place\u201d in the field.<\/p>\n

Ms. Katz\u2019s longer-term goals for the protein stretch beyond formula alone. <\/p>\n

She would also like to partner with non-governmental organizations to provide lactoferrin for malnourished children, whose damaged gut linings can make it harder to absorb nutrients. <\/p>\n

She wants to bring it into the neonatal intensive care unit, where she says studies show babies\u2019 conditions improving with lactoferrin. She even wants to introduce it to prenatal spaces, pointing to its potential to support better iron regulation in the third trimester. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll of this impacts mom and baby, and we know that that\u2019s where we can go, and we can\u2019t go there right away,\u201d said Ms. Katz. \u201cThere\u2019s so many places that we could actually materially change people\u2019s health.\u201d <\/p>\n

With reports from Sean Silcoff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Laura Katz, CEO of Helaina, at her lab in New York City on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[126],"tags":[1064,1051,1065,1042,1040,1066,563,1039,1057,1058,1054,1041,1038,39,1062,457,1056,1049,1077,1043,1044,70,1052,1053,899,1067,1047,199,1072,1073,1075,1070,1074,1068,1071,1045,1060,1061,69,1059,1069,1050,789,1063,1055,1048,1046,1076],"class_list":["post-96146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nestle","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-nestle","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}