Interview by Sheldon Baker
Weslee Glenn picture
Weslee Glenn, PhD, is the vice chairman of innovation at Ayana Bio, spearheading the corporate’s R&D and commercialization efforts designing mobile know-how to provide plant pure merchandise. Previously Provivi’s director of metabolic engineering, his experience lies in engineering biocatalysts and pathways to provide worthwhile bioactives for well being and wellness. Glenn earned his PhD and Postdoctoral at MIT and Caltech.
Integrative Drugs: A Clinician’s Journal (IMCJ): The NIH awarded Ayana Bio a grant to analysis the neuroprotective advantages of plant-cell-cultivated saffron. What do you hope your research will present?
Weslee Glenn, PhD: First, we hope to grasp the levers that drive manufacturing of health-promoting molecules from Crocus sativus L (“saffron”). The biosynthesis of those molecules has been labored out for essentially the most half. However comparatively little is thought about what regulates their biosynthesis (what causes C. sativus cells to provide these molecules). Understanding regulation will assist us enhance the cell tradition’s productiveness. Second, we hope to establish a posh of saffron bioactives that demonstrates neuroprotective advantages for Huntington’s illness. Finally, we hope our analysis exhibits how plant cell-cultivated saffron can yield enhanced ranges of neuroprotective compounds present in historically grown saffron. Huntington’s illness is the main focus of this research, however the work outlined right here might inform different potential well being advantages of saffron as properly.
IMCJ: Why deal with saffron?
Dr. Glenn: Like many different botanical components, saffron faces a posh and unsure future within the face of local weather change. Whereas the medicinal properties of saffron have lengthy been touted, its restricted provide has pushed up prices and made it troublesome to conduct complete analysis research. Additional, the plant requires labor-intensive harvesting practices, usually taking 170 000 flowers to provide only one kilo of saffron. These components make high-quality saffron an costly ingredient for well being and wellness merchandise.
IMCJ: How do present saffron complement components differ from what your plant-cell-cultivated ingredient will supply?
Dr. Glenn: Saffron’s excessive value makes it a chief goal for adulteration. I’m actually not calling out anybody firm or product as a result of the issue is so pervasive. However plant cell cultivation is an answer that can enable us to provide high-quality merchandise constantly.
IMCJ: Additional clarify Ayana Bio’s plant cell cultivation.
Dr. Glenn: We coax cells from plant components like leaves and shoots into reentering the cell cycle. This course of types a largely unorganized cell mass known as a callus. From these cells, we create a liquid tradition that we check in opposition to a wide range of development and course of situations to grasp how these variables impression productiveness. We then scale up the highest cell line, medium, and course of groupings. This course of is just like brewing beer, however with plant cells and oxygen as an alternative of yeast (or micro organism) and anaerobic situations. By offering these plant cells with carbon and nitrogen sources, oxygen, nutritional vitamins, and minerals, Ayana Bio produces plant biomass while not having to develop your complete plant. Just a few weeks later, the plant cell line is absolutely propagated and able to harvest as an ingredient for well being and wellness merchandise.
To present an instance, in the event you cultivated blueberry plant cells, the top product would look nothing like a soil-grown blueberry however would retain the well being useful molecules discovered within the berry. The identical is true for saffron. Our product received’t seem like saffron threads however can have all of the health-beneficial molecules.
IMCJ: What well being advantages have earlier saffron research proven?
Dr. Glenn: Medical research show that saffron improves protection in opposition to oxidative stress, which slows the development of neurodegenerative illnesses reminiscent of Alzheimer’s illness. Research have additionally proven saffron’s capability to enhance depressive signs, assist in weight reduction by rising satiety, and deal with age-related macular degeneration by preserving multifocal electroretinogram responses, making it a strong well being ingredient with interconnected advantages.
IMCJ: What are the corporate’s capabilities to discover simultaneous cell traces?
Dr. Glenn: Ayana Bio makes use of machine studying to research a whole lot of plant cell traces concurrently for essentially the most promising beginning factors. This data wealthy strategy permits us to seek out, create, and scale complicated plant molecules for industries like meals and beverage and cosmetics that depend upon the highest-quality components. In distinction, different firms appear to deal with one cell line and some situations at a time.
Ayana Bio makes use of excessive throughput artificial biology capabilities like sequencing, omics know-how, and analytical chemistry to pick out one of the best plant cell traces at an enormous velocity and scale. Transcriptomics and metabolomics workflows are our bread and butter, that means we monitor the genes being turned on or off and the molecules inside our cells beneath a whole lot of various situations. Metabolomics and transcriptomics datasets are fascinating and informative alone, however we collect even higher insights by correlating them with machine studying. Finally, machine studying helps us predict and management how our plant cells will reply to totally different remedies, which helps shorten the event timeline.
IMCJ: Ayana Bio has created a Plant Cell Benefit (TM) portfolio that leverages plant bioactives. Do you think about plant-cell cultivation a development?
Dr. Glenn: No. The foundational research of plant cell cultivation have been printed over 60 years in the past. So, I’d say that plant cell cultivation has been a very long time coming. However key points nonetheless should be labored out. As a pioneer within the business, we goal to foster widespread optimistic understanding of the quite a few advantages of plant cell cultivation, from enhancing the dietary content material of client merchandise to taking the pressure off conventional agricultural provide chains.
IMCJ: Will plant-cell-derived saffron be provided globally?
Dr. Glenn: We’re at the moment within the strategy of exploring and optimizing our saffron cell line, medium and course of grouping. After that, we’ll scale the manufacturing of plant cell-derived saffron, full our pre-clinical research, and discover clients to proceed constructing the market.
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