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The human immune system is very good at recognizing foreign proteins. While this is critical for protecting against infections, it is sometimes too good: protein therapeutics like monoclonal antibodies are typically much safer than small molecule drugs, but the body often rejects them as foreign. Meet Lumen Bioscience, an antibody engineering company delivering therapeutics to places where our bodies won’t reject them: the GI tract, nasal passages, and skin. Our immune system is accustomed to all the foreign proteins we eat, smell, and touch, so this improves safety. These antibody drugs can be delivered in higher concentrations which improves efficacy against certain diseases. Learn more about Lumen’s promising clinical trial results and how they can produce antibodies at one-hundredth of the cost!

Consider the origins of the products we use in our daily lives; almost everything owes its history to the oil field, the strip mine or the slaughterhouse. Meet Cambrium, a Berlin-based synthetic biology company rethinking the material world by designing sustainable, high-impact proteins and producing them with microbes! By engineering the amino acid sequence in structural proteins, the company creates novel materials with specific properties and functions. Starting with optimized collagen for cosmetics, Cambrium is building a pipeline of highly functional, animal-free, fossil-free ingredients to usher in a new materials future without compromise. Learn more about Cambrium’s first product launch and stay tuned for news of the company’s upcoming collaborations with innovators in skincare and beyond!

It’s no secret that animal agriculture is severely damaging our planet. While we transition our diets to sustainable proteins, we also need to reimagine our materials, especially leather. Meet SQIM, a materials company bringing plastic-free "mycelium leather" to market! By leveraging liquid and solid-state fermentation, SQIM is quickly scaling the production of EPHEA, a novel class of superior materials that can be thoroughly customized for use in the fashion industry. EPHEA can be dyed, embossed, finished, and adapted to create animal-free, high-quality products, without harming our planet. Learn more about SQIM, the ongoing scale-up of EPHEA, and their commercially available mycelium-based products for interior design, MOGU! (image: EPHEA)

Women’s health has been long overlooked and underserved. Non-prescription supplements often claim to help women’s vaginal microbiome health, but none of them have proven therapeutic value. Meet LUCA Biologics, a biotechnology company developing a new class of microbe-based therapies to treat unmet needs in women's health. The company’s living medicines, which target the vaginal microbiome for urogenital and reproductive health, will go through a full FDA approval process and could finally offer women solutions for antibiotic-resistant UTIs, STIs, bacterial vaginosis and preterm birth. LUCA is also working to support women’s health globally, not only in affluent regions. Learn more about LUCA’s goals of supporting women and keep up with their clinical trial progress!

Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration: that’s the name of the synbio game and that’s why Molecular Devices and IDT are teaming up to make it easier for biotech companies to accelerate their research. For 35 years, IDT has supplied DNA constructs that are critical for research and discovery. Molecular Devices focuses on automated hardware and software for upstream and downstream processing and the robotics needed to screen up to 30,000 DNA clones every day. The companies’ synergy is clear: IDT supplies custom DNA and Molecular Devices provides the tools to efficiently run experiments and analyze the results. Now the companies are taking their synergy a step further. Learn more about IDT and Molecular Devices’ 2022 special offer to accelerate companies operating in the bioeconomy!

Most people wait to feel sick before they go to the doctor. But imagine if you could wake up in the morning, do a quick scan of your health using a semiconductor chip and immediately know your health status before symptoms even start. This kind of technology could democratize healthcare and ensure everyone can access their health information quickly and reliably. Meet Roswell Biotechnologies, a company turning individual molecules into biosensors on a chip. By miniaturizing biosensors, Roswell is able to fully leverage the power of chip technology to create scalable, affordable data snapshots about our health and our environment. Learn more about how Roswell is deploying their technology in drug discovery, biosecurity, crop protection, and much more!