Created by Lee Chae, PhD., Brightseed’s co-founder and CTO, the Forager platform systematically identifies natural bioactives and maps their connection to human health benefits.
To date, Forager has mapped more than two million plant compounds – 20 times more than existing scientific literature – and dozens are in various stages of validation across multiple health territories, including metabolic health, digestive health, cognitive health, sugar management, maternal health, and immunity.
The research collaboration will use Brightseed’s bioactives insights and the Kallyope Klarity platform to leverage integrated end-to-end capabilities to identify candidate compounds that act on the gut-brain axis to target weight management and glucose control.
The partnership marks Brightseed’s first foray into the therapeutics space, having already established notable partnerships with the likes of Danone, Pharmavite, Ocean Spray, and ofi (olam food ingredients).
According to the release, Kallyope has rights to derivatize and develop therapeutics in humans any early-stage identification of potential bioactive candidates. Both companies will share the rights to consumer applications of identified compounds.
“This collaboration brings together two leading, diverse technological platforms and teams for the discovery of novel consumer products that may have therapeutic benefits for Type 2 diabetes and obesity,” said Jay Galeota, president and CEO, Kallyope.
“We are excited to have the opportunity to work with Brightseed, whose capabilities are highly synergistic with our lead metabolism therapeutics program and deep drug discovery and development expertise.”
Jim Flatt, co-founder and CEO, Brightseed, stated: “Seventy-five percent of our current healthcare spending in the U.S. goes towards treating chronic health conditions that severely impair the quality of life of millions of people. We need to reimagine more scalable approaches to combat the scourge of diet-induced chronic conditions.
“Kallyope is one of the visionary pharmaceutical companies that recognize the need to develop health products that can prevent or reduce the risk of certain chronic diseases. Historically, nature has provided the majority of small molecules that are used to inform our medicines. In partnership with Kallyope’s high value gut-brain axis biological targets and technology platform, we will discover the next generation of natural bioactives to improve health and reduce the incidence of diet-related chronic disease.”
