German chemical company, BASF ($BFFAF) has signed a partnership agreement with Boston based biotech company, Glycosyn to market human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) for dietary supplements, functional nutrition, and medical food. http://cellbased.link/pdt

Why We Care: Glycosyn develops HMOs through proprietary biosynthesis processes in partnership with Ginkgo Bioworks. These biosynthesis processes incorporate cellular fermentation to synthesize HMOs at scale and more affordably then by chemical or enzymatic synthesis.

Beyond Babies: Beyond the obvious application of baby formula, emerging scientific evidence shows HMOs to be effective at treating Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Glycosyn holds exclusive rights for the use of HMOs in treating these conditions with other patents in process.

Take Away: Cellular fermentation is enabling bioengineers to synthesize and produce valuable substances that occur in nature at scale.

Advancements

Impossible™ Sausage launches at Little Caesars® in Washington, New Mexico, and Florida. Like the Impossible Burger, the sausage is made primarily of soy protein and cell based heme with a few differing ingredients. According to Impossible Foods website, the sausage has a “fattier flavor and juicier, chewier bite than the Impossible Burger. http://cellbased.link/v7v

Investments

🧬 DNA Script closed a $38.5 million Series B investment round led by LSP. Other investors include Illumina Ventures, M. Ventures, Sofinnova Partners, Kurma Partners and Idinvest Partners.

Why We Care: DNA Script will supply affordable, rapid, high-quality production of synthetic DNA which is a critical part of the supply chain for products synthesized through cellular fermentation. http://cellbased.link/fbu

🐶 🦴Cell based pet food company, Wild Earth, closes an $11 million Series A investment round led by VegInvest. Other current investors include Mark Cuban’s Radical Investments, Felicis Ventures, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, and Mars Petcare, bringing total funding to $16 million. http://cellbased.link/ulb

Amyris (Nasdaq:AMRS), received its first $10 million milestone out of a $255 million deal from LAVVAN for the development of cell based cannabinoids. “The company expects to bring the first fermentation-derived cannabinoid products to market next year with better purity and at significantly reduced costs compared to similar products and ingredients.” http://cellbased.link/9y1

Mars Inc and Jerusalem Venture Partners announced a research and development agreement to invest in companies in the food tech space. It is unclear exactly what type of technologies the companies are looking at, but they aim to address solutions for global food, agriculture and nutrition challenges. http://cellbased.link/kl1

Disclosures: