BoobyBiome, a company focused around developing products for infant health and CPI, a technology innovation centre, have begun collaborations to scale-up BoobyBiome's novel bacterial supplement designed to promote the healthy development of infants who don't have access to breast milk.
The collaboration aims to bring the product to commercial reality, and progress has already been made in this endeavour.
Ensuring infant's future gut health
The supplement contains live bacteria identified and sourced from the microbiomes of donated breast milk that can boost the immune systems of babies whose mothers cannot breastfeed. The product can be added to formula milk, or breast milk for babies who require additional support to improve gut health and develop their immune systems.
The first year of life is critical to the development of a babies' gut microbiome, and breast milk is one of the main factors influencing the type of microorganisms present.
Infant gut health and the immune system
Studies show that breastfeeding is associated with higher levels of bacteria such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, which have many benefits such as modulating the immune system, providing nutrients, protecting against infection and reducing the risk of allergic diseases.
The microbiome is a key component of health in early life, but also has long term health implications. A lack of specific good bacteria in early life has been linked to increased risk of inflammatory or allergic diseases such as asthma and inflammatory bowel disease developing later in life.
CPI developed, optimised and scaled the bacterial fermentation process for manufacturing BoobyBiome's consortium-based product, which included a co-culture method containing 6 different strains of bacteria.
Dave Tudor, Managing Director of Pharma, HealthTech and Quality at CPI, said: “The UK has one of the lowest rates for breastfeeding in Europe, and we know some of the reasons behind that are because some mothers don’t have the option available to them, so this supplement has the potential to alleviate that stress and anxiety. This product could have a significant impact on the health of babies globally, and we anticipate the product's commercialisation.”
