Alpine Bio, San Francisco-based biology design company leading the molecular farming movement and maker of Nobell Foods, an animal-free dairy brand, has revealed a newly-issued patent, ‘Recombinant Milk Proteins and Food Compositions Comprising the Same’.
This milestone represents a significant stride in making animal-free dairy more accessible and appealing to consumers. Pioneering a novel, innovative technology, Alpine Bio’s team of scientists have overcome several technical challenges in order to recombinantly express casein in plants, the main protein in milk that is responsible for giving cheese its melt and stretch. Nobell Foods has been on a mission to unlock a new age of animal-free products where taste, quality, and affordability are widely accessible. With further advances in Alpine Bio’s end-to-end platform for protein production, Nobell Foods is even closer to bringing animal-free cheese to the world.
“Today we celebrate the breakthroughs our company has made over the last few years to reimagine the future of food in a way that positively impacts the climate, agriculture and our food system at large,” said Magi Richani, Alpine Bio Founder & CEO. “This milestone not only reflects our strides in science-backed technology, but also brings us closer to delivering a sustainable and delicious product to market.”
This tenth patent, which is focused on dairy food compositions containing plant-expressed recombinant casein proteins, showcases Alpine Bio’s advancements in replicating the production of traditional animal-based dairy products in a plant system. Strengthening Alpine Bio’s robust IP portfolio, this patent further demonstrates the company’s novel approach to revolutionizing the future of food with cheese that is produced without animals.
“Cheese is one of the most loved foods in the modern diet, and yet it is one of the worst offenders in terms of its climate impact,” commented Chris Rivest, Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Magi and her team have developed a transformative way to produce dairy-identical proteins in plants to create stretchy, gooey, delicious cheese that consumers love, but made from plants – it is simply amazing.”
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued U.S. Patent No. 11,952,606 on 9 April 2024, protecting Alpine Bio’s milk protein production technology. This proprietary technology enables high and consistent production of milk proteins in plants, greatly outperforming first-generation expression of casein and making the resulting animal-free products more cost competitive against traditional dairy products.
