Ergo Bioscience, recognized in 2022 by FoodBytes! from Rabobank as one of the 15 most disruptive food tech startups worldwide, specializes in developing complex animal proteins such as bovine myoglobin and casein through plant cell culture.
Founded in May 2020 with pre-seed investment from CITES, the startup boasts a team of 12 scientists dedicated to innovation and biotechnology to create animal-free ingredients.
With biotech research in Wilmington, Delaware, laboratories in Sunchales and Santa Fe, Argentina, and a new subsidiary in Canada, Ergo believes in the potential of plant cells to bring sustainability to the food industry and beyond.
Plant cells instead of microbes
Ergo has developed a platform called EUKARYA that “programs” plant cells with multiple simultaneous genetic modifications to make them express complete structures of mammalian proteins. This technology allows for the mass production of modified plant cells in bioreactors.
According to the startup, plant cells are recognized as the most sophisticated biological systems, and harnessing their complexity at a large scale can bring significant advancements.
“We can efficiently produce proteins that are exactly identical to those of animal origin in a very effective and short period of time”
While precision fermentation through engineered microbes like yeast or bacteria can produce many plants or animals ingredients, it has limitations. The microbes used in fermentation lack the complex organelles and inner machinery of plant cells. Nonetheless, Ergo considers the cultivation of plant cells a precision fermentation platform.
“Unlike other fermentation platforms, plant cells combine the best of two different worlds: on one hand, they can grow in a bioreactor as rapidly as bacteria or yeast; more importantly, plant cells have the same protein expression machinery as mammalian cells. Therefore, we can efficiently produce proteins that are exactly identical to those of animal origin in a very effective and short period of time,” the startup explains on its website.
Vegetable sources of animal proteins
Ergo’s target proteins — bovine myoglobin, responsible for the color and flavor of beef and known as heme, and caseins, essential for the texture and nutritional value of cheese— aim to revolutionize plant-based food with their nutritionally rich and loved taste, flavor, and appeal.
“Our products can be used as functional ingredients to formulate unique plant-based foods. Currently, we produce myoglobin and caseins. Myoglobin can be used in plant-based meat, with its impact related to the ability to develop natural red color, a taste profile, and aroma identical to beef. Caseins can be formulated in a wide variety of plant-based products, from fermented dairy products like cheese and yogurt to ice cream and baked goods, with their contributions mainly related to texture, taste, and aroma,” says Ergo.
Plant cell-derived proteins are described as bioidentical to their animal counterparts while also being GMO-free because all genetic material is removed from the final ingredient after fermentation and protein purification stages. Moreover, the proteins are considered vegan since no animals are involved in their production. Plans include developing a pipeline including ten complex proteins over the next five years.
Incubators and partnerships
In 2023, the startup participated in the first and second editions of Mylkcubator, a program specialized in innovation for the dairy sector by Eatable Adventures and Pascual Innoventures, and received $500,000 for the development of its animal-free casein. The startup was also selected by ProVeg Incubator along with 10 other amazing and disruptive startups to participate in last year’s cohort.
In 2022, Ergo partnered with Italy’s Aethera Biotech to industrialize its precision fermentation bioprocesses using plant cells.
“To accomplish the revolution towards a 100% sustainable and animal-friendly world, it is our duty as scientist-technologists to provide consumers with products that enable a transition without sacrificing the pleasure of delicious food, nutritional quality, and, of course, cost-parity. All our energy and creativity are devoted to this pursuit,” ERGO states on its website.
