Aker BioMarine scores first US university partnership on LPC-bound EPA and DHA

07 Jan 2021 --- Aker BioMarine has obtained exclusive rights to the University of Illinois Chicago’s (UIC) intellectual property related to lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC), being researched for its function on brain and eye health.

The licensing agreement allows Aker BioMarine to materialize the current research results at UIC.

“The availability of the [LPC] product will also expand the type of studies we can engage in and hopefully also increase interest in further research,” Christine Strømhylden Lunder, innovation project manager at Aker BioMarine, tells NutritionInsight.

The research collaboration comes at the heels of Aker BioMarine’s launch of Lysoveta, a new business segment based on LPC-bound EPA and DHA from krill.

The company will take responsibility for supplying the UIC team with LPC-bound EPA and DHA derived from Antarctic krill to further its research on brain and eye function.

“It is important to bring our findings into the real world, to test and prove the commercial potential of LPC-bound EPA and DHA in terms of its benefits on human health,” says Hyunjin Kim, associate technology manager at UIC’s office of technology management.

LPC-DHA/EPA moves through the Mfsd2a transporter to cross the blood-brain barrier.What’s special about LPC?
The Lysoveta launch was motivated by research that identified LPC as a primary carrier molecule of DHA and EPA across the blood-brain barrier – two widely studied fatty acids with an extensive scientific history of supporting cognitive and ocular function.

In the blood barrier, LPC-DHA/EPA molecule attaches to a Mfsd2a transporter to be carried across the outer membrane into the inner leaflet of the endothelial cell to the brain. This “lock-in-key” mechanism is notably facilitated through the presence of LPC.

The molecule is traditionally made by synthetic chemistry, meaning it normally involves an “arduous” process, R&D director Dr. Andreas Storsve previously shared with NutritionInsight.

LPC typically has to be made from scratch, which often only yields small quantities that can cost thousands of US dollars per gram.

Because the molecular structure of LPC is very similar to krill oil, Aker BioMarine can scale up production at a fraction of the cost and with a high degree of control. “With our starting material, we basically almost have an LPC molecule already,” Storsve explains.

The molecular structure of krill oil and LPC are fairly similar.Broadening the collaboration network
Aker BioMarine emphasized that part of its new Lysoveta business strategy was to supply free the Lysoveta product for university collaborations and research projects to “continue to build on the emerging science.”

“Since announcing the investment in Lysoveta and our dedication in exploring the opportunities this opens, we have seen a lot of interest from different stakeholders,” Strømhylden Lunder explains.

“We have been working on Lysoveta for years, and to now open for collaborations is just the beginning of a new phase of the development of this space.”

Working together with UIC marks Aker BioMarine’s first research collaboration on LPC and Lysoveta, with eyes on expanding collaborations to other partners who are “eager to explore the benefits of this carrier on human health.”

By Anni Schleicher

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