Brain Biotech AG and Berlin-based Formo Bio GmbH have announced their strategic partnership. The cooperation aims to optimise microorganisms in order to expand novel and sustainable protein production through precision fermentation for commercial use.

Brain Biotech AG and Formo Bio GmbH are launching a strategic collaboration to further advance the fermentative production of animal-free milk proteins. Brain Biotech is a well-known player in industrial biotechnology; the start-up Formo has attracted a lot of attention as a food tech pioneer in the field of alternative milk proteins. Formo wants to accelerate the scaling of its production of bioidentical milk protein with a genome editing technology and is relying on Brain Biotech's expertise and BEC platform to do so.

The "Brain engineered Cas-Nucleases" (BEC) platform originates from a broad search campaign of the Hessian company to find further tools for targeted genome editing in microorganisms. According to the company, more than 2,000 previously unknown nucleases have been identified, some of which Brain intends to patent for special applications. The company is optimistic that it can gain its own protective rights and scope of action alongside established tools such as CRISPR-Cas9.

The current strategic cooperation is aimed at optimising microorganisms in order to expand novel and sustainable protein production through precision fermentation for commercial use. Formo is opening up a completely new product category alongside the well-known animal products and purely plant-based alternatives: the Berlin-based start-up produces nature-identical milk proteins with the help of specialised microorganisms. As the first company in Europe, Formo wants to revolutionise the 700 billion dollar milk market and save several gigatonnes of CO₂ at the same time. Formo is meeting with growing demand.  According to a self-conducted study, for example, 79% of consumers have indicated that they would like to try animal-free cheese products.

"We are proud to be partnering with BRAIN; such a renowned company with which we share our passion for biotechnology and the mission to foster sustainability: using precision fermentation, we can remove the cow from the dairy supply chain, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 91 to 97 percent," says Dr. Britta Winterberg, co-founder and CSO at Formo. "We are looking forward to providing Formo with our genome editing expertise and proprietary BEC nuclease to support their strain development for the production of animal-free cheese products. Precision fermentation is an example of how genome editing technology can be used to generate a protein that is nature-identical but can be produced more sustainably than animal protein," adds Dr. Michael Krohn, EVP and Head of R&D at Brain Biotech.