Givaudan has published new data from its Plant Attitude research, revealing the future of alt protein technologies. Conducted in collaboration with UC Berkley, the research examines the latest innovations in the landscape, including a review of the technologies used to make alt protein products. These include extrusion (both dry and wet), 3D printing, cultivated meat, and mycelium biomass fermentation. The benefits, challenges, and potential of each method are comprehensively explored. The research also investigates the reasons behind the growing demand for alt protein. According to Givaudan, 71% of global consumers believe it is healthier to eat less meat, while 57% are concerned about animal welfare. In terms of sustainability, 73% of food-related greenhouse gas emissions are caused by animal agriculture and 70% more food will ... more

New Givaudan Research Reveals Future of Alt Protein Technologies

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NEW YORK – Single-molecule protein measurement technologies have garnered great hype — and serious investment — in recent years, but a recent analysis suggests proteome-scale analyses remain far off. In an arXiv preprint published last month, researchers examined the feasibility of using single-molecule methods for proteomic studies, finding that both in terms of cost and coverage, such techniques still fall short of existing mass spectrometry approaches. Given that several of the study authors are prominent mass spec-based proteomics researchers, this conclusion is perhaps unsurprising. Nonetheless, it matches trends in the single-molecule protein analysis space, where, despite some talk of proteome-scale capabilities, most companies and researchers are pursuing more targeted applications . Michael MacCoss, first author on the preprint and professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington, said that while a number of publications have detailed the ability of different single-molecule approaches to determine peptide and protein sequences, few if any have looked at how many of those sequences will have to be analyzed to characterize proteomes with reasonable depth of coverage. MacCoss noted that in mass spec-based proteomics, each spectrum represents millions of ions, which, he said, meant mass spec approaches "had to be measuring as many or more molecules than a lot of these [single-molecule] methods were proposing to do." That realization led MacCoss and his coauthors to look more closely at the number of molecules a platform would need to measure were it to analyze the human proteome at the level of individual proteins. A typical human cell contains about 300,000 mRNA molecules and about 10 billion protein molecules, they noted, suggesting that to achieve similar depths of coverage, a single-molecule proteomic experiment would need to read around 30,000-fold more reads than a comparable RNA-seq experiment. Given that some guidelines recommend between 5 million and 200 million reads per sample for RNA-seq experiments, that would put requirements for single-molecule proteome sequencing into the hundreds of billions or even trillions of reads per experiment. That, they note, exceeds the current capabilities of existing next-generation sequencing platforms, and is well beyond the throughput of single-molecule protein analysis technologies. Quantum-Si President and COO TKTKT, for instance, said that his company expects its platform will, at launch, be able to make 200,000 peptide reads per experiment. Single-molecule firm Nautilus Biotechnology has shown it can affix up to 10 billion individual proteins to its chips (though it has not yet shown it can identify these proteins), but even this figure is well below the number of reads that MacCoss and his coauthors project as required for whole proteome analysis. The typical mass spec experiment also falls well short, with a typical 90-minute run measuring around 1 billion peptides, the researchers noted. MacCoss said, however, that mass spec experiments achieve an effective dynamic range that is much larger than would be assumed based on the number of peptides measured. This is because mass spec proteomic experiments use upfront separation, typically by liquid chromatography, to simplify the sample before analysis. This upfront separation means that different peptides are entering the mass spec at different times, ensuring that signal from the highest-abundance peptides doesn't dominate the analysis at the expense of lower-abundance peptides. This upfront separation also means mass spectrometry is able to decouple identification and quantification of molecules, with, as MacCoss noted, a mass spectrum matched to a particular peptide representing hundreds of thousands or millions of individual molecules. Javier Alfaro, data science group leader at the University of Gdansk and coauthor on the preprint, said that he believes that upfront separation and sorting of molecules and the consequent decoupling of identification and quantification could be a way forward for single-molecule proteomic technologies. Alfaro added that he is perhaps more optimistic about single-molecule approaches than some of his coauthors, but said that he would like to see more work in the field around the use of upfront sample separation. "For me the reason why I came onto this paper is because I don't see that as an aspect of single-molecule [research] that is being pursued," he said. "I think it is maybe because the scale of the problem is misunderstood or hasn't been stated explicitly in the literature. This paper really talks about what is the scale of the dynamic range problem and the sheer size of the human proteome just to try to encourage innovation in the field." Parag Mallick, Nautilus's cofounder and chief scientist, said in an email that the paper "makes some great points about the challenges of proteomics analysis, particularly with regard to dynamic range." He suggested, though, that the authors did not address one of the main advantages of single-molecule approaches — the fact that the identifiability of molecules is not linked to their abundance. "In [mass spec] low-abundance species are less likely to have peptides ionize, and then when ionized, they generate less ions, which can make for poorer MS/MS spectra that are harder to identify," he said. "In single-molecule methods, abundance and identifiability are decoupled as each molecule is studied independently." Single-molecule methods also offer the possibility of more finely-grained analyses, allowing researchers to more accurately measure specific protein forms, including rare variants, that might go undetected in a typical mass spec experiment. Of course, this requires sufficient dynamic range to ensure the instrument gets a chance to study these low-abundance single molecules. Henry Brinkerhoff, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington whose work focuses on nanopore-based protein sequencing, acknowledged that current single-molecule technologies lack the scale to tackle proteome-wide experiments. While the feasibility of large-scale nanopore-based protein sequencing has yet to be demonstrated, assuming it does prove possible, a chip with 1,000 nanopores on it could plausibly sequence perhaps a million proteins per hour "if you're really lucky and everything is going nicely," Brinkerhoff said. "If you stack 100 of those chips, you're still like a factor of 100 away from what you really need." He is optimistic, though, that the density of such arrays can be increased significantly. "There's no reason why the density of nanopore experiments can't be increased by factors of 10, 100, 1,000," he said. "The fundamental limitation is how many individually addressable electrodes can you cram onto a chip, and that is a question that is well answered just by looking at a [charge-coupled device] for a camera. You can get a chip that has gigapixels." Amit Meller, professor of biomedical engineering at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, likewise said he believes that massively scaling nanopore-based measurements is possible, at least in theory. "I think that we have all the components that we need to build a chip like this," he said. "In terms of basic science and what we understand about nanopores, I think we do have what we need." However, he added, "there is a gap between what people have done in labs [and] building a system that is working." For nanopores, the issue is largely one of "taking the fabrication process of nanopores from the laboratory to the mainstream fabrication facilities, [and] adapting these processes to the tools that are used in advanced nanofabrication," he said. "If that is done, you could have a huge breakthrough." Meller is also exploring protein separation approaches including chip-based chromatography and electrophoresis that could be coupled to single-molecule techniques. In 2020, he and his colleagues published a paper in Nature Scientific Reports in which they presented a device for on-chip gel electrophoresis and used it to separate proteins isolated from a human cancer cell line. "You can now produce nanochips that would separate millions of proteins by mass-to-charge ratio and do it very effectively," he said. "I think this would be very useful because it basically takes the whole proteome, separates it by mass or mass-to-charge-ratio, and then you can use single-molecule identification downstream." "This is definitely something that I am very interested in," he said.

Scale Remains Key Challenge for Single-Molecule Protein Technologies

Roquette Ventures invests in Advanced Protein Technologies
The companies signed an agreement to accelerate the Global Business of new promising human breast milk components  for Food, Nutrition and Health markets. 12 November 2019 - Roquette Ventures, an investment company supporting pioneer innovations for Food, Nutrition and Health markets, and Advanced Protein Technologies (AP Technologies), a bio venture company developing Human Milk Oligosaccharides (HMOs), cognitive and immune-activating ingredients that only exist in human milk, announced that they have signed an agreement to work together on the development of new promising human breast milk components. Chul Soo, Shin, CEO of AP Technologies emphasized that "This investment from Roquette Ventures confirms the strong interest of our differentiated technology to offer promising new ingredients of human breast milk. Korea is therefore securing a cutting-edge technology for human milk oligosaccharides that will be mainly applied to food and pharmaceuticals. AP Technologies will be able to contribute to the health of the people in Korea through supplying a highly-functional food ingredient while reducing the reliance on imports of these important ingredients. By collaborating with Roquette Ventures, we will expand to export our product internationally and step up to earn a place as a global natural-based food leader in the long run. "  
Edouard Nuttin, General Manager of Roquette Ventures added “This investment represents an important collaboration for us. As long term strategic partner, we are driven by a strong desire to support pioneering innovations and to contribute to accelerating their development. AP Technologies has a great growth potential and we are very pleased to be part of this journey to better answer Food, Heatlh and Nutrition markets expectations worldwide. AP Technologies’ HMOs will definitily bring unique advantages and benefits to consumers.” 
Unlike other oligosaccharides that are available in the market, HMOs are only found in human breast milk. Constituting up to 8% of the human milk with over 200 different types of structures, HMOs have a promising annual market potential forecasted at 2bn USD with projections showing that they will not only be a major part of infant and child nutrition but also be introduced into industries such as general food, pet food, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. At present, leading international food companies have already included a HMO in their infant formula and baby food thanks to the various proven direct health benefits. These include brain and immune system development of newborn babies, prebiotics effect that nurtures beneficial intestinal probiotics, and the excretion effect of harmful bacteria. AP Technologies licensed the production technology of 2’-FL, one of the HMOs, from the team led by Professor Seo Jin Ho in Seoul National University in 2016 based on a unique proven safety technology using Corynebacterium glutamicum. Applying a differentiated robust strain and with an accumulated long experience in the fermentation industry, AP technologies are developing cutting edge technology to secure higher productivity and cost competitiveness.These HMO production technology patents have already been secured in Korea and will be filed in the USA, Europe, China, Japan and India, etc respectively. AP Technologies is set to receive the USA FDA's General Recognized As Safe (GRAS) certification, an internationally recognized food ingredient safety certification, by the first quarter 2020. It also expects to receive approvals from the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and the European EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) by 2020 while continuing registration efforts in Asia (China, Vietnam, Thailand, India, etc. ), EAEU (Russia), and Latin America (Brazil, etc.). AP Technologies received its first investment from domestic venture capitals (KB Investment, Stone Bridge Capital, Intervalue Partners, and Maple Venture Investment) in 2018 and built its HMO Campus in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. This will be the Campus that carries out full-scale commercial HMO production and global sales starting next year. After establishing its position in the food and health industry, AP Technologies will embark on its long term plans of entering the cosmetic, nutraceuticals, pet food and pharmaceutical market with products that generate immune activation, brain development and synergistic effects of the gut microbiome. About Roquette Ventures - Founded in 2015, Roquette Ventures is an investment company supporting pioneer innovations for Food, Nutrition and Health markets. As a long term strategic partner, we help the companies we invest in to accelerate the development of their projects and boost growth. We invest in inspiring, passionate and forward looking teams and in projects that develop the best natural-based innovations for Food, Nutrition and Health markets, anywhere in the value chain. We are driven by the desire to invest in innovative companies with a strong growth potential throughout the world.

Corporate - Roquette - Press release
Press release: Roquette Ventures invests in Advanced Protein Technologies

| Source: Mesa Laboratories, Inc.
LAKEWOOD, Colo., Oct.  31, 2019  (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --  Mesa Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ: MLAB ) (we, us, our, “Mesa” or the “Company”), a diversified supplier of quality control instruments and consumables to highly regulated markets today announced the acquisition of Gyros Protein Technologies Holding AB (“GPT”). GPT is headquartered in Uppsala, Sweden and is a leading provider of Immunoassay and Peptide Synthesis solutions that accelerate the discovery, development and manufacturing of biotherapeutics. The acquisition deepens our commitment to biopharmaceutical quality control and will be the core of our new platform, Biopharmaceutical Development. We acquired GPT from AP6 (Sixth Swedish National Pension Fund), Ampersand Capital Partners and various individual shareholders. The acquisition price for GPT consisted of cash consideration of $180 million, subject to purchase price adjustments. The acquisition is expected to add between $37 million to $40 million of revenues during the first 12 months (of which approximately 55% is recurring in nature), deliver double digit organic revenues growth over the next several years and excluding the impact of purchase accounting, generate gross profit margin percentages in the mid to high 60’s. Additionally, excluding the impact of purchase accounting and integration expenses, we expect adjusted operating income as a percentage of revenues to be in the mid-teens for the first 12 months. Revenues for the remaining five months of FY20 are expected to be $13 million-$15 million. “GPT brings an innovative approach to protein analytics in biopharmaceutical quality control and process development. The Gyrolab immunoassay solution is a proven, microfluidic driven platform that increases repeatability and throughput while minimizing sample size and manual handling. The company also provides a leading peptide synthesis platform delivering the highest quality peptides in particular, for the longer and more complicated sequences that are of vital interest to many applications, including that of therapeutic peptides and neoantigen therapies. We believe that The Mesa Way approach to continuous improvement will help the GPT team to continue to rapidly scale both commercially and operationally” said Gary Owens, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mesa. Dan Calvo, President of GPT, added “We are proud of the track record we have improving the processes for developing biotherapeutics. Superior technology backed by deep customer intimacy has been the foundation of our success and we felt the same spirit of innovation at Mesa. We look forward to working with the Mesa team to expand the applications we deliver and deepening our level of customer support.”
Jefferies LLC acted as the exclusive financial advisor to GPT. For more detail, reference the Mesa Acquisition of GPT presentation in the Investor Relations section of Mesa’s website at www.mesalabs.com . About Mesa Laboratories, Inc.
Mesa is a global technology innovator committed to solving some of the most critical quality control challenges in the pharmaceutical, healthcare, industrial safety, environmental and food and beverage industries. Mesa offers products and services through five divisions (Sterilization and Disinfection Control, Biopharmaceutical Development, Instruments, Cold Chain Monitoring and Cold Chain Packaging) to help our customers ensure product integrity, increase patient and worker safety, and improve quality of life throughout the world. Non-GAAP Financial Measure
In this release, we refer to non-GAAP financial measure adjusted operating income (“AOI”) which is defined to exclude the non-cash impact of amortization of intangible assets, stock-based compensation expense, and impairment loss on goodwill and long-lived assets. We are unable to provide a reconciliation of forward-looking AOI because components of the calculation are inherently unpredictable and currently unknown. Forward Looking Statements
This press release may contain information that constitutes "forward-looking statements." Generally, the words "believe,” “estimate,” “intend,” "expect," “project,” “anticipate,” “will" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, which generally are not historical in nature. However, the absence of these words or similar expressions does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. All statements that address operating performance, events or developments that we expect or anticipate will occur in the future — including statements relating to revenues growth and statements expressing general views about future operating results — are forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements include statements in connection with the ability to successfully integrate the businesses, risks related to disruption of management time from ongoing business operations due to the acquisition of GPT, the risk that any announcements relating to the transaction could have adverse effects on the market price of Mesa Labs’ securities, the risk of any unexpected costs or expenses resulting from the transaction, the risk of any litigation relating to the transaction, the risk that the transaction and its announcement could have an adverse effect on the ability of Mesa Labs and GPT to retain customers and retain and hire key personnel and maintain relationships with their suppliers and customers and on their operating results and businesses generally, the risk that the combined company may not operate as effectively and efficiently as expected, the risk that the combined company may be unable to achieve synergies or other anticipated benefits of the transaction or that it may take longer than expected to achieve those synergies or benefits and other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Management believes that these forward-looking statements are reasonable as and when made. However, caution should be taken not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements because such statements speak only as of the date when made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. In addition, forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our historical experience and present expectations or projections. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2019, and those described from time to time in our subsequent reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For more information about the Company, please visit its website at  www.mesalabs.com
CONTACT: Gary Owens. ; President and CEO, orJohn Sakys; CFO, both of Mesa Laboratories, Inc., +1-303-987-8000
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Mesa Labs Acquires Gyros Protein Technologies

Flexible, modular system, designed for 21CFR Part 11 compliance
Delivers high purity, productivity and yield for simple to complex peptides
September 04, 2019 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time
UPPSALA, Sweden & TUCSON, Ariz.--( BUSINESS WIRE )--Gyros Protein Technologies AB, a pioneer in automated nanoliter-scale immunoassay platforms and leading provider of peptide synthesizers and reagents, today introduced PurePep™ Chorus, its next generation automated peptide synthesis platform. The new scalable instrument and software platform enables production of even the most challenging sequences at the highest possible crude purity and yield. Scientists using peptides in development of novel therapeutics, biological research, or biomaterials development frequently work on long and difficult sequences, including modified cyclic peptides. These are particularly challenging to synthesize at sufficiently high purity and yield, and often require precious or expensive reagents. Designed to overcome these issues and make these advancements accessible to both academic and industrial scientists, PurePep Chorus has a modular design, enabling in-lab upgrades aligned with the growing needs of peptide researchers. The flexible system can be purchased with, or lab-upgraded to include, two, four, or six channels, with independent induction heating, and real-time UV monitoring on two or more channels, depending upon researchers’ needs and budgets. PurePep Chorus also employs flexible programming and Single-Shot™ additions, to eliminate the need for priming while minimizing waste when using special amino acids and reagents. The instrument incorporates an intuitive interface software that simplifies the chemist’s workflows, accelerates set-up with pre-programmed methods, while also being designed for 21 CFR part 11 compliance. Jasmine Gruia-Gray, SVP Marketing, Gyros Protein Technologies, said: “This latest instrument harnesses the power of our proprietary PurePep Pathway in a modular design, maximizing purity and providing industry-leading productivity and flexibility. The new software has many new features, including the ability to program the next synthesis while the instrument is running.”
Gyros Protein Technologies will be showcasing PurePep Chorus and data at various conferences across Asia Pacific, Europe and the United States over the coming months. For more information please visit: https://page.gyrosproteintechnologies.com/protein-technologies-purepep-chorus-peptide-synthesizer
ENDS

Gyros Protein Technologies introduces PurePep Chorus automated peptide synthesizer

Merger

Protein Technologies. founded in 1985, designs, manufactures and supplies peptide synthesizers and reagents to academic and commercial researchers at leading universities, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. As market demand for peptide therapeutics increases, Protein Technologies continues to evolve to consistently deliver innovative technologies that improve the efficiency of drug discovery.

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