New Business Unit Announcement Ventria Bioscience announces the launch of its new business unit, CuraVive. The new subsidiary is solely focused on leading the innovation in plant-based functional food ingredients. CuraVive applies over 20 years of Ventria Bioscience’s plant protein production experience to create high-performance plant-based food ingredients of unmatched quality and safety. CuraVive is […]
Our Blog: In Context
Welcome to In Context. Here, you’ll find regular, in-depth analysis of recent news, scientific publications, and the global public health issues of the day, and how Ventria Bioscience’s plant-based technology for recombinant protein expression, our research programs, and our partnerships fit into context.
Secretory IgA: potential new weapon against respiratory transmission of SARS-CoV-2?
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has become a major source of disruption and upheaval to normal daily routines. The repeated opening and re-shuttering of schools and universities in response to spiking case numbers, for example, highlights the need for preventative treatments before a return to normalcy is possible. While vaccines are being developed, other prevention […]
Could IgA from Human Breast Milk Offer Insights into Potential Treatments for COVID-19?
As of the date of this writing, there have been more than 8 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, and close to half a million deaths. The pandemic’s initial, exponential growth trajectory has been contained through massive voluntary and mandatory isolation efforts; however, these have had their own disastrous consequences for the economy and for […]
Human Milk Proteins: Their Power to Improve the Health Status of Children in Developing Countries
It has long been known that human breastmilk provides crucial health advantages to newborn infants as they develop, and has been a topic of intense research. Current clinical innovations seek to harness the benefits of human breastmilk to address global medical needs. With functions such as energy provision, immunologic power, and gut maturation, there are […]
Design and Objectives of the ELCIE Clinical Trial
Effects of rhLactoferrin on Chronic Inflammation in the Elderly: Design and Objectives of the ELCIE Clinical Trial We have previously introduced an ongoing clinical study, headed by principal investigator Jeremy Walston, MD, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, aimed at finding out if recombinant human lactoferrin (rhLactoferrin) produced from Ventria Bioscience’s ExpressTec biologic manufacturing system may […]
Breastmilk and the developing infant brain
In a previous post, we discussed how the composition of human breastmilk protects infant health and aids in the early development of the gut and immune system. We also talked about how some of those beneficial properties can be isolated to specific milk proteins that can now be produced affordably, in high yield, for clinical […]
Studying a potential new insulin analog for diabetes therapy
Toward a better insulin analog: improving product yield enables scientific study of potential new diabetes therapy. Daily injections of the pancreatic peptide-hormone insulin are essential to life for many people living with type 1 or advanced type 2 diabetes. While therapeutic insulin was originally available only by purifying it from animal sources, in 1982 a […]
Clinical study: can a protein derived from breastmilk palliate symptoms of inflammation in the elderly?
Through the process of natural selection, the components of mammalian breastmilk have been shaped over the course of millions of years. For each species of mammal, breastmilk provides not only the nutrients that neonates and infants require for proper growth and development outside of the womb, but also a host of components that protect the […]
Ventria Bioscience partners with BMGF to address pediatric diarrhea in the developing world
In our last post, we discussed results from a re-analysis of the Global Enteric Multicenter Study (GEMS), which found that the key pathogens responsible for nearly 80% of worldwide cases of pediatric diarrhea are Shigella spp, rotavirus, adenovirus 40/41, heat-stable enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC), Cryptosporidium spp, and Campylobacter spp. Previously, we also discussed a study, […]
Causes of diarrhea in children: The Global Enteric Multicenter Study (GEMS)
Worldwide, diarrheal diseases are the second leading cause of death in children younger than 5 years of age, killing approximately half a million children every year. The causes of diarrhea are multifold, and public health efforts to address this challenge require reliable, consistent estimates of pathogen burden. The Global Enteric Multicenter Study (GEMS) was a […]