Supermarkets could soon be selling yogurts, milkshake powders and other products offering relief to the millions of people who have Crohn’s disease or colitis.
An Israeli startup is preparing for clinical trials of a natural supplement derived from cow milk that will reduce inflammation – and reduce patients’ reliance on prescription medication.
Scientists now know that mothers’ milk contains exosomes, tiny capsules of microRNA — the molecules that regulate protein production in their bodies – that combat inflammation and other symptoms associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) such as Crohn’s and colitis.
Extracting those exosomes from human milk clearly wouldn’t be practical as a commercial venture, but the exosomes in cows’ milk are remarkably similar.
And Exosomm, a biotech startup, has developed a unique method of extracting those exosomes and harnessing their healing powers by adding them as a powder to food.
“There are ingredients in all mammals’ milk – whether it’s a human mother and her newborn baby, or a cow and her calf – that make the cells of the offspring function better,” says Netta Granot, the company’s CEO.
“We are basically isolating those ingredients from the milk very gently and naturally so we can keep their bioactivity, and concentrating them, creating an ingredient that can be added into foods. It could be yogurt, a milkshake powder or any other dairy product.”
Keep reading at israel21c.org.
Exosomm is a biotech startup developing a way to use exosomes to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) through food. Exosomm Co-founder and CEO Netta Granot is a Technion alumna.
