Meet the biotech startups brewing milk in bioreactors to improve on baby formula.
Lab-grown breast milk is gearing up to disrupt the infant formula market. New York–based startup Helaina raised $45 million in September 2024 to develop a breast-milk-equivalent protein, and California-based B corporation Checkerspot raised $55 million in 2023 to create human milk fat through microalgal fermentation.
To help bring a cultured milk to market faster, they turned to precision fermentation with engineered yeast. Using this method, they produced the immune-boosting protein bovine lactoferrin, in a form they call LF+. “We engineer the yeast to take in sugar and pump out a protein comparable to bovine lactoferrin, without the cow,” says Lin. It takes a week to produce the TurtleTree lactoferrin LF+, which Wisconsin’s Cadence Cold Brew coffee company plans to include in a sports drink.
Massachusetts biotech company Conagen has also been working on lactoferrin and HMOs since 2022, but unlike others, its focus is solely on baby formula. Conagen is creating lactoferrin through precision fermentation and the HMO 2′-fucosyllactose through a bioconversion process using enzymes. Human milk sugars and protein are not the only compounds in startups’ sights; the Rehovot-based Israeli company Wilk is focused on fats. Wilk was founded in 2020 by lactation scientist Nurit Argov-Argaman to create a product that would bridge the gap between baby formula and breastmilk. Taking inspiration from the techniques used by cell-based meat companies, Wilk uses donated cells from human milk to recreate HMOs and fats found in breast milk.
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