- Partnership between Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition and
AI-enabled protein discovery company, Shiru, is the first of its
kind in the global ingredients sector
- The companies plan to jointly develop a sweet protein to
replace the sweetening power of sugar and other sweeteners with the
benefit of moderating blood sugar levels, which is linked to
diabetes and obesity
Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition North America, Inc. and the
protein discovery company Shiru are partnering to develop and
commercialize sweet proteins for use in beverages and specialty
products. This partnership combines unparalleled strengths from
both entities to bring natural, functional ingredients to market:
Shiru’s powerful AI-driven discovery capabilities and AHN’s deep
expertise in fermentation.
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Shiru is accelerating a world of natural
protein discovery. In this 3D model based on protein functional
attributes, the bright red cluster indicates a group proteins
predicted to be sweet, discoverable only by Shiru’s Flourish™
technology. Learn more at ProteinDiscovery.ai (Photo: Business
Wire)
The partnership is the first foray by the leader in amino acids,
Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition, to test sweet proteins – long
considered a holy grail application for the food industry.
Sweet proteins can replace sugar and other sweeteners in food
and beverages without spiking blood sugar levels associated with
diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease globally. A handful
of known sweet proteins derived from fruits and berries grow near
the equator. These known sweet proteins show tremendous early
promise and face challenges related to onset/lingering taste
effects and stability. To overcome these challenges, Shiru will use
Flourish™, its AI-driven discovery platform, to uncover additional
natural, food-safe proteins not previously known to be sweet.
Sweet proteins are a promising, potentially more sustainable
alternative to HFCS and sugar production and are an appealing sugar
replacement in food and beverage product development. Remarkably,
sweet proteins can deliver up to 5,000 times more sweetness than
sugar, offering the potential to replace 70-90% of sweetness
provided by sugar in food and beverage products.
Unlike sugar, sweet proteins do not cause blood sugar levels to
spike because the body metabolizes them differently. When you eat
sugar, your body metabolizes it into glucose and fructose, which
triggers your pancreas to release insulin. Insulin helps glucose
enter cells to be used for energy. By contrast, sweet proteins do
not trigger insulin release, which may help manage blood sugar and
diabetes. Sweet proteins are digested like any other dietary
protein, the large-molecule building blocks of our bodies. Because
of this, they are not harmful to the gut microbiome.
Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition’s existing portfolio of
sweetener ingredients has a tremendous position in the market, and
a customer base that includes the world's biggest food and beverage
companies. In addition to its sweetener portfolio in the food and
beverage sectors, Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition also has leading
fermentation-produced products across other flavor applications,
including biopharmaceutical, sports and wellness nutrition, animal
nutrition, nutraceutical, specialty and personal care, regenerative
medicine, and medical food industries.
“Our partnership with Shiru is one of many examples of our
approach to innovation,” said Ryan Smith, Chief Growth Officer and
Executive Vice President at Ajinomoto Health and Nutrition. “We
believe in working with partners and solutions that uniquely
complement our century plus of expertise in the ingredient space,
our expansive portfolio of products for improving nutrition, and
our dedicated and talented team around the globe. As collective
industry leaders, we believe this partnership will position both of
us to be on the cutting-edge of what’s next in functional
ingredients, specifically in protein, an increasing category of
interest for consumers. This partnership, and our balanced
strengths, will allow us to identify natural proteins for use as
sweeteners across numerous applications to meet the changing
demands of the food industry and what consumers expect.”
The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the
partnership.
ProteinDiscovery.ai: The “Amazon for proteins”
The partnership marks Shiru’s entrance into the sweet proteins
category as it continues to expand its portfolio of novel,
functional protein solutions. Shiru maintains the world’s largest
database of natural proteins from plants and microbes and a
uniquely trained AI engine, Flourish™, for proteins for
bio-industrial applications including food, ProteinDiscovery.ai.
This platform allows corporate partners to rapidly identify and
test highly functional proteins found in nature, slashing R&D
and product development costs and accelerating time to market.
ProteinDiscovery.ai is the “Amazon for proteins” – a marketplace
to search, discover, pilot, and buy molecules for food,
agriculture, personal care, and advanced material applications. The
searchable database catalogs more than 33 million molecules by
sequence, functional use, and successful expression.
Shiru has already forged partnerships with global multinationals
including Puratos and Griffith Foods via its CVC fund, Nourish
Ventures, to discover, pilot, and scale sustainable food
ingredients. Other ingredients in Shiru’s ingredient portfolio
include OleoPro™, a high-performance, structured fat that replaces
saturated animal fat and unsustainable tropical oils including
palm, coconut oil, and cocoa butter in food and personal care,
which just received a patent from the USPTO, and uPro™, the active
protein ingredient in OleoPro™.
"Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition conducted a tremendous amount
of due diligence and determined that partnering with Shiru provides
them access to a landscape of protein solutions that is truly
differentiated and represents the fastest way to discover and
develop commercially valuable sweet proteins across their product
lines," said Shiru Founder and CEO Dr. Jasmin Hume. “At Shiru we
share Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition’s vision of eating well and
living well. Together our companies are now using artificial
intelligence to supercharge this mission, which we are very excited
for. We are already identifying high-value, natural, scalable
proteins for Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition’s brands which we
know will positively impact human and planetary health alike.”
About Shiru, Inc.
Shiru, The Protein Discovery Company, is accelerating the
limitless possibility of protein through AI-powered discovery and
high-performance, sustainable products. Shiru’s disruptive
approach, powered by its patented Flourish™ technology, cuts
discovery costs and speeds up scaleup success, quickly pinpointing
high-performing and scalable natural proteins on drastically
accelerated timelines. Its namesake partnerships platform,
Shiru.com, offers patented, ready-to-scale protein solutions. Its
technology platform, ProteinDiscovery.ai, offers an interactive
marketplace and discovery suite in a first-of-its-kind, open-access
catalog featuring over 33 million molecules for applications across
food, personal care, agriculture, and advanced materials. Shiru is
led by a seasoned team of technologists and industry veterans and
is based in Berkeley, California. Shiru is backed by leading
venture capital firms, including S2G Ventures, Nourish Ventures,
and CPT Capital. For more information, visit http://www.shiru.com
and ProteinDiscovery.ai.
About Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition North America,
Inc.
Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition North America, Inc. is a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Ajinomoto Co., Inc., a global leader in
the research, development, manufacture and sale of amino acid-based
products for the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, sports nutrition,
health and beauty industries, as well as food ingredients. The
company opened its first American office in New York in 1917 and
has since grown and expanded its presence, establishing offices and
production facilities in North Carolina, Iowa and Illinois.
Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition North America, Inc. leverages an
international manufacturing, supply and distribution chain to bring
the highest-grade products to customers. For additional information
on Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition North America, Inc., please
visit http://www.ajihealthandnutrition.com.
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Nicki Briggs nicki.briggs@shiru.com