{"id":280962,"date":"2025-07-21T21:42:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T21:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/280962\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T21:42:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T21:42:10","slug":"helaina-scales-human-lactoferrin-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/280962\/","title":{"rendered":"Helaina scales human lactoferrin production"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York-based startup Helaina<\/a> has scaled up production capacity for its precision fermented human lactoferrin (brand name: effera<\/a>) with co-manufacturing partners to the scale of metric tons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s 10 million servings of product per production run,\u201d claims the company, which has struck deals with multiple commercial partners\u00a0who have launched with effera to date, including Kroma Wellness (SuperCore)<\/a>, Levelle<\/a>, Healthgevity<\/a>, Kepos (TryKepos)<\/a>, and Young Gut Ultra by Joel Greene<\/a>, with additional launches planned for later this year. It is also working with Mitsubishi International Food Ingredients<\/a>, although it cannot reveal details of the partnership at this stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe promise of precision fermentation has always been clear, but the unspoken challenge was whether the technology could handle truly complex proteins in commercially impactful volumes,\u201d said founder and CEO Laura Katz. \u201cThis milestone proves that it can. We aren\u2019t just making a simple molecule; we are producing one of nature\u2019s most sophisticated proteins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whey proteins such as beta-lactoglobulin, which is now made by several precision fermentation players, are smaller and less complicated to produce recombinantly, she claimed. \u201cLactoferrin is a large, highly complex glycoprotein protein and making that through fermentation at the scale we\u2019re operating at will take time for other companies to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Human vs bovine lactoferrin<\/strong><\/p>\n

A bioactive protein found in breast milk and colostrum, lactoferrin is essential for iron balance, immune function, gut health, and a healthy inflammatory response. Helaina expresses it in a genetically engineered strain of yeast and has self-affirmed the ingredient as GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe).<\/p>\n

Several startups are producing bovine lactoferrin via precision fermentation for the adult nutrition market. However, human lactoferrin\u2014which is structurally different to the bovine version\u2014is seen by potential customers as a premium option, Helaina founder and CEO Laura Katz told\u00a0AgFunderNews.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve conducted a robust, well-powered\u00a0clinical study<\/a> that shows that when people consume our human lactoferrin, you don\u2019t see the body producing antibodies, whereas you do with bovine lactoferrin. We are replacing bovine lactoferrin, which is in short supply as it\u2019s very expensive to purify from cow\u2019s milk, with something that our body better tolerates.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only is bovine lactoferrin an allergen, but the body recognizes it as foreign and clears it out of its system, which means it can\u2019t actually stay in the body as long to confer a benefit. That data is incredibly powerful when we\u2019re talking to customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lactoferrin.Helaina\u2019s human lactoferrin is easy to work with, shelf-stable, and \u201creally robust,\u201d says CEO Laura Katz. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty tasteless, especially because the dose is small, and it can work in everything from yogurts and bars to beverages, powders, gummies, and capsules.\u201d Image credit: Helaina
\nWomen\u2019s health, active nutrition and digestive wellness <\/strong><\/p>\n

While some other startups including Eclipse Ingredients<\/a> [AgFunder portfolio co] and All G<\/a> are also working on human lactoferrin via precision fermentation, Helaina\u2014which has raised $83 million in equity funding to date\u2014is the most advanced.<\/p>\n

The firm, which is targeting women\u2019s health, active nutrition and digestive wellness markets, is supplying effera to consumer brands in functional foods, beverages and supplements via strategic distribution partners.<\/p>\n

A protein that binds and transports iron, lactoferrin is of particular interest to companies in the women\u2019s health arena, given that many women are iron deficient, but experience digestive issues if they take iron supplements, said Katz. \u201cThe active nutrition space is also a key opportunity as lactoferrin can help reduce inflammation, which is really interesting to athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the innate immune system is built during infancy, the adaptive immune system is constantly evolving throughout the lifecycle, with a body of literature showing there are benefits to lactoferrin consumption throughout the human lifecycle, claimed Katz.<\/p>\n

Gut heath, immunity, inflammation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Based on the published clinical data, she said, customers could potentially make several claims around optimizing iron utilization, healthy gut function, healthy inflammatory response and maintaining a healthy immune system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re finding in the market with some of the early adopters is a really keen interest in the bio-equivalency of our human milk protein to what\u2019s found in human breast milk. That message is really resonating. It\u2019s also easy to formulate with and plays well with several other key ingredients.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cAs we were the first to bring this human protein to market, we have initially been focused on studies that establish safety and equivalency to what our bodies natively produce. Now we are really focused on a few key pillars of health that lactoferrin impacts, gut health being one of the main areas of focus, as well as immunity and inflammation.\u201d<\/p>\n

One customer, Kroma Wellness, for example, has developed a product combining effera lactoferrin with other precision-fermented bioactives including the human milk oligosaccharide 2\u2019-FL that is being pitched as \u201cthe first colostrum made for humans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have studies that we run internally at Helena, as well as clinical research that we\u2019re doing with partners to really dial in on efficacy,\u201d said Katz. \u201cAnd I would say really with the focus of how low dose supplementation of something that our body natively knows can really move the needle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is also an animal study <\/a>that shows that when you mix lactoferrin with creatine it enhances muscle recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Katz: \u201cOur body produces lactoferrin throughout life and our lactoferrin levels fluctuate, especially as women, in response to estrogen, and there\u2019s a lot of interesting applications within the world of women\u2019s health. So we see a huge opportunity, like you\u2019ve seen in the past with collagen or creatine: our bodies make this stuff, but supplementing with more has been demonstrated to show real benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018A completely new category and opportunity\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Katz added: \u201cLactoferrin plays such an important role endogenously, in our body, in our gut\u2026 It\u2019s found in our brain. It\u2019s found anywhere we have a microbiome. It\u2019s in our saliva, helping to fight against pathogens. And so the idea that this is just for babies, I think, is something we\u2019re evolving past.\u201d<\/p>\n

COO Paola Delgado added: \u201cWhen you get older, you produce less of this protein, so these products are designed to, just as Laura said, supplement and lift up the body to act at its optimal self.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the market opportunity, said Katz, \u201cIt\u2019s not just about replacing bovine lactoferrin, but growing a completely new category and opportunity. We are also seeing some companies create more specialty, high value, clinically backed bioactives, and human lactoferrin fits in with this trend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about Helaina\u2019s pipeline, Katz said: \u201cWe continuously draw our inspiration from what the body has perfected in human milk, and we will focus on making ingredients with real clinical differentiation. But we can\u2019t do this alone, so partnerships, especially as we think about new molecules, new ingredients, are something that we\u2019re really starting to focus in on more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York-based startup Helaina has scaled up production capacity for its precision fermented human lactoferrin (brand name: effera)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4318],"tags":[105,4434,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-280962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-nutrition","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114893405749022643","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}