Molecular Farming News - vegconomist: the vegan business magazine

Moolec Science Merges with Bioceres Group to Scale Molecular Farming Platform

April 23, 2025

Moolec Science, a producer of animal proteins through molecular farming, has entered into an all-stock business combination with Bioceres Group Limited and related entities. The deal, finalized on April 17, 2025, will position Moolec as the parent company of Bioceres Group, Nutrecon LLC, and Gentle Technologies Corp., creating a larger entity focused on innovation in food production and sustainability. Moolec uses molecular farming to produce animal proteins and nutritional oils by engineering plants to carry animal protein genes. This approach allows for the production of proteins typically sourced from animals, but using plant-based systems, which could provide a more sustainable and scalable alternative. In the new structure, Moolec will issue up to 87 million new shares and 5 million warrants to the shareholders of the …

Organisations and brands:

Bioceres Group

Moolec Science

PoLoPo has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with CSM Ingredients to develop egg protein powder for baking applications.

Company News

PoLoPo and CSM Ingredients Partner to Develop Price-Stable Egg Protein Powder for the Baking Industry

October 31, 2024

PoLoPo, a molecular farming startup that grows proteins in potatoes, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the global ingredient-tech company CSM Ingredients to develop egg protein powder for baking applications. Commercial baking uses ovalbumin, the main protein in egg whites, extensively in many products, from croissants to donuts. However, constant avian flu outbreaks are disrupting egg production and the supply chain, leading to rising egg prices and instability. The collaboration aims to provide an affordable, price-stable, and more sustainable alternative to traditional egg protein. Christian Sobolta, CSM Ingredients Group Managing Director, shared, “The global market for ovalbumin powder is projected to reach $36 billion by 2032, and PoLoPo presents an opportunity to change the dynamics of this category in a way that benefits both the planet …

Organisations and brands:

csm-ingredients

PoLoPo

Company News

Unexpected Demand for Affordable Patatin Pushes Molecular Farming Startup PoLoPo to Prioritize Product Launch

August 29, 2024August 27, 2024

Molecular farming startup PoLoPo announces that it will start supplying one of its flagship proteins, patatin, for F&B products to commercial clients, pending the USDA’s regulatory approval. The Israeli startup has developed a platform to grow the egg protein ovalbumin, widely used in the food industry, and patatin in large volumes in potato tubers, securing a lower cost. As explained by the startup, patatin, the native protein of potatoes, is expected to have a relatively straightforward regulatory process. Despite being derived from genetically engineered plants, it is extracted and processed into a powder that contains no genetic material, making it non-GMO. CEO and co-founder Maya Sapir-Mir comments, “We are keeping our eyes on the prize, which is bringing molecular-farmed egg protein to market, but conversations …

Organisations and brands:

PoLoPo

Polopo CEO Maya Sapir Mir

Opinion

Op Ed: Maya Sapir-Mir, PhD, CEO and Co-Founder of PoLoPo, on Growing Animal Proteins from Potatoes

April 22, 2024April 18, 2024

Maya Sapir-Mir is CEO and co-founder of PoLoPo, a molecular farming pioneer producing proteins directly in common crops, beginning with egg protein (ovalbumin) grown in potatoes. PoLoPo last year raised $2.3 million in pre-seed funding and recently unveiled its molecular farming platform, SuperAA, for producing key proteins ovalbumin and patatin. Maya has nearly ten years of experience in the biotech industry and agricultural R&D and holds a PhD in plant sciences from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She performed post-doctoral work at the Volcani Institute, Israel’s leading agricultural R&D facility, in protein identification, extraction, and characterization in plants and microorganisms. Here, she explains the importance of this emerging biotechnology; “Instead of inefficiently growing plants to feed animals crowded in factory farms, molecular farming gives us …

Organisations and brands:

PoLoPo

©Motif FoodWorks

Company News

Motif FoodWorks Partners with IngredientWerks to Explore Creating Animal-Free Heme From Corn

March 2, 2023

Food tech startup Motif FoodWorks announces it is partnering with IngredientWerks, an agtech ingredients company, to develop high-value plant-based proteins for the alt-protein market. Through the research partnership, the two companies say they will explore new ways to optimize heme protein production through molecular farming. According to Motif, the partners have begun an exploratory study aimed at recreating Motif’s HEMAMI™ ingredient using corn. HEMAMI is used to give plant-based meats the same flavor and aroma as animal-based meat, and is said to be bioidentical to the bovine heme protein found in beef. IngredientWerks will aim to produce Motif’s HEMAMI using broad-acre crops such as corn. If successful, Motif says enabling crop protein production in its ingredient strategy will lower both production costs and the carbon footprint …

Organisations and brands:

HEMAMI

IngredientWerks

Motif FoodWorks

Co-founder and CEO Mohammad El Hajj © Bright Biotech

Cultivated, Cell-Cultured & Biotechnology

Bright Biotech Closes Oversubscribed Round for “Game-Changing” Plant Chloroplast Technology

November 22, 2022

UK-based Bright Biotech has secured $3.2 million in funding in an oversubscribed seed round. The startup’s technology harnesses valuable proteins in the chloroplasts of plants that can help cultivated meat companies achieve industrial production affordably. More expensive than diamonds Growth factors make up at least 55% of the marginal cost of cultivated meat. According to Bright Biotech, astonishingly, growth factors can cost several million dollars per gram making them more expensive by weight than diamonds. As a solution to this bottleneck, the Manchester startup says it can manufacture and supply premium growth factors at minimal cost using proteins produced by plants, through an innovative technology that harnesses chloroplasts to express large amounts of high-value proteins with large yields. It adds that its chloroplast-based expression is light-driven, …

©Moolec Science

Stock market

$504M Moolec to Become “World’s First” Molecular Farming FoodTech Listed on Nasdaq

June 16, 2022

Moolec Science has entered a new business agreement that will see it become the first molecular farming foodtech to be listed on Nasdaq. The foodtech ingredient pioneer is aiming to become a category creator in the alternative protein landscape and has entered a definitive business combination agreement with LightJump Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company. UK-based Moolec focuses on developing real animal proteins in plants using molecular farming; a scalable, affordable, and sustainable technology which is the production of animal proteins using plants as small factories. The transaction sets Moolec’s proforma equity value at $504 million and upon closing the combined company is expected to be listed on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “MLEC”. Targeting the rapidly expanding alt protein sector, Moolec claims its …

Organisations and brands:

Moolec Science

Cultivate Tomorrow Cell Ag Hackathon Event

Science

Moolec Science Expands Portfolio in Mission to “Address Dependency of Animal Proteins in Every Segment of the Food Industry”

April 9, 2021

Moolec Science, a global Ag-Foodtech company based in the UK whose purpose is improving the affordability of animal-free food solutions, presents its latest two developments which join its working portfolio of meat analogs made with blends of soybean with selected porcine proteins and pea with bovine proteins.

Organisations and brands:

Moolec Science

Company News

Moolec Science: Using Molecular Farming to Make Alternative Proteins

November 9, 2020

Moolec Science is working on developing meat substitutes through “molecular farming” — the use of plant cells to produce large quantities of a substance from proteins. Previously, this technology was mostly used in the pharmaceutical industry. But after Moolec’s founders saw that it had other applications, the company was born.

Organisations and brands:

Moolec Science

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