108Labs embraces IP incubation model to fund scalable cell-cultured dairy

22 Mar 2022 --- 108Labs has unveiled its M2 smart bioreactor milk production platform, bringing the US-based company closer to cell-cultured breast milk and bovine dairy ingredients. In addition, licensing the technology will help bring in extra funding, CEO Shayne Giuliano tells NutritionInsight.

“We know we can’t build the 170,000 factories needed to replace cows ourselves, so we are building an intellectual property (IP) incubation and B2B business model that can accelerate the field by creating turnkey solutions. Food, dairy and pharmaceutical companies around the world can then leverage these to build their own Pure M2 factories,” he states.

By minimizing the barrier to entry for the production of Pure Milks made with M2 and showing what is possible with product development and existing collaborators, 108Labs believes it can convince corporates to invest internally in M2 and Pure. 

“We can then attract all the capital investments worldwide needed to [improve babies’ well-being] as soon as possible with Pure Human Milk, and replace cow farming for the majority of the world’s supply of bovine milk by 2040.”Pure Milk is any cell-cultured milk made with Pure Mammary Factors’ cell medium and growth factors.

Solving all the problems?
Within 108Labs, there are numerous entities including Pure Mammary Factors, which aims to reduce the barrier of entry for Pure dairy product research and product commercialization.

“M2 combined with Pure Mammary Factors may solve all the problems with cell-cultured milks, from the first safe to consume cell-cultured milk to scalability to affordability to global accessibility,” he states.  

“Developing M2 combined with Pure Mammary Factors, in particular, is where we think we can have the biggest impact on convincing companies around the world to invest in cell-cultured milk research now.”

This is to get on the path to commercial phase dairy food replacement, humanized infant formula and prescription drugs as soon as possible.

The only way
108Labs believes technology like M2 is the only path to commercializing cell-cultured milks. 

It is “almost impossible” to produce food-grade milk with manual methods because non-food-grade buffers are needed to remove milk bioreactors from incubators by hand to manipulate them.

Therefore, M2 is billed as a turnkey wetware, software and hardware milk-making stack driven by AI to reduce the cost and accelerate the scaling of cell-cultured milk production worldwide.

Giuliano estimates that completion of the first stack could take around 18 to 24 months from now. 

“Because of the nature of software-driven solutions, once we have completed our first stack – which I actually think of as an artificial cow – our second artificial cow can be built in an hour,” he notes. Giuliano stands in front of redacted M2 architectural design, which reflects plans for cell-cultured cheese. 

Taking advantage of bioactivity
Giuliano highlights that M2 is a species-agnostic platform that is engineered to produce replacement milks – not alternative milks. 

“The same molecules as those found in raw human breast milk or raw bovine milk. Except that M2 produces safe to consume raw milks, which are suitable for therapeutic and food product research and development without pasteurization.”

He continues that applications are the same as all current milk applications – if not more. 

“Humanized infant formula, prescription drugs, cheese, butter, French toast – anything you can make with milk today, except with Pure Milks, we get to take advantage of the full bioactivity of these molecules in a way no one ever has who doesn't drink raw milk.

Guiding investment
Giuliano says the self-funded research incubation model at 108Labs is moving toward licensing and consulting as it transitions to commercial focuses.

“We have yet to accept investment at 108Labs, but we have accepted investment in 108Labs-affiliated entities. We expect to attract more investment into product development once we complete the transition from research into commercial phases of cell-cultured milk development over the next three to seven years,” he states. 

108Labs is also planning to license its emerging fields of cell-cultured milks and antibodies with partners around the world.

“We don’t talk publicly about our partners because these fields are so competitive, and we want to work with everyone possible to impact the world the most,” says Giuliano.

The company does give exclusivity in some cases, at least geographically, but long-term, it wants to support as many partners as possible. Electron microscopy image of secretory milk IgA immunoglobulins. 

Embracing the full-stack approach
Expanding on the meaning of a stack, Giuliano explains “full-stack” usually includes client software and server software serving some purpose.

“In the case of M2, the ‘client’ is a smart bioreactor that includes hardware and sensors and pumps connected to our AI and server stack, which includes both distributed and centralized computing.”

Altogether, this allows 108 Labs to control the operations of milk bioreactors around the world with artificial intelligence from its headquarters in Hillsborough, North Carolina.

“Due to the laborious nature of cell-cultured milk production – which is actually a tissue engineering rather than suspension cell-culture biotechnology – we believe that only through automated, AI-controlled solutions and ‘smart stacks’ that take into account all the hardware, wetware and software requirements can cell-cultured milks become commercially successful,” Giuliano emphasizes. 

The road ahead
108Labs has numerous “world’s first” goals for the next two years, including launching a turnkey smart bioreactor platform capable of producing any species of cell-cultured milk, FDA-approved cell-cultured milk, affordable food-grade medium and growth factors and a replacement cell-cultured cheese. 

“We’re also targeting the first human milk prescription drug to enter trials and the first infant formula using fully human molecules,” says Giuliano.

“All these goals come from a simple focus on mastering mammary cells. Everything we do right now moves us close to all these goals. We can only achieve all these goals at once by building collaborations with companies that can invest and develop these products with our help,” Giuliano emphasizes.

By Katherine Durrell