Van Heron Labs aims to support the growth of the emerging bioeconomy by using the power of genetics, bioinformatics, and AI to address critical industrial challenges, such as cell growth, in food, materials, cancer therapeutics, and vaccine biomanufacturing. With the newly raised funds, the company will further improve its technology platform and commercialize existing offerings and services.
“We are excited to lead the funding round in Van Heron Labs, as we firmly believe that their innovative approach to optimizing cellular nutrition has the potential to revolutionize multiple industries, including biopharma, biomanufacturing, foodtech, and agriculture,” said Julius Strauss, investor at FoodLabs.
Revolutionizing cell growth
Van Heron Labs, headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama, was founded in 2020 by Dr. Rebecca Vaught, Dr. Alec Santiago, and Nithin Parsan.
The company has developed a novel technological platform that uses genomics, bioinformatics, artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology to create custom formulations for basal media, supplements, feeds, and bioreactor additives.
Its automated platform is said to be the first technology to comprehensively determine the optimal composition of nutrients, including a full range of macro and micronutrients, that cells need based on genetic data.
The company states that its platform produces media that improves the health, growth, and productivity of cells by significant margins, resulting in higher quality, efficiency, and scalability in processes. These results are possible because the products are tailored to specific physiological and metabolic cell requirements, enhancing cellular processes and systems on a molecular level.
Transitioning from FBS
In addition to the media formulation platform, the biotech has launched a service, Ser-X Technology, to help cultivated meat, biomaterials, precision fermentation, and other life sciences companies transition from fetal bovine serum to cost-efficient, chemically defined media and pluronic replacements to scale affordably and more quickly.
“Van Heron Labs looks forward to using the generous support and funding from FoodLabs to advance our goal of making biological innovation better, faster, and cheaper. By fueling the new bio-economy, we feel that our customers can optimize their systems and bring technologies to overcome critical global challenges to market,” said Dr. Rebecca C. Vaught, founder & CEO of Van Heron Labs.
