The AI-powered company is unlocking the hidden healing potential of plants by finding active compounds that could target specific conditions. Next up: diabetes and sleep disorders.
Chae, along with co-founders Jim Flatt and Sofia Elizondo, launched bioscience startup Brightseed to identify unknown compounds present in plants and develop them into various food ingredients, supplements and medicines. For the last five years, the trio have been collecting plants that humans have been using as food and medicine for millennia, grinding them into powder, extracting the active chemicals and running them through their AI platform—which they affectionately call “Forager”—to find the next blockbuster supplement.
The company’s first discovery is a pair of compounds—N-trans-caffeoyltyramine (NCT) and N-trans-feruloyltyramine (NFT)—found in cannabis seed shells and black pepper that have shown promise in two preclinical studies on mice to remove fat from the liver. The studies, both of which were published in Cell Death and Disease, a Nature peer-reviewed journal, suggest that these compounds could be used to manage non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, a chronic condition that afflicts about a quarter of the world’s population. Currently, there is no FDA-approved treatment for NAFLD but patients are encouraged to lose weight and eat healthy. Serious cases require weight-loss surgery or even a liver transplant.
Headquartered in South San Francisco, Brightseed closed a $68 million Series B round this month and the company has raised a total of $120 million at what Forbes estimates to be a $300 million valuation. Brightseed is using that capital to expand its R&D and ramp up the commercialization of the two hemp seed compounds.
Cannabis is not the only plant the company is researching. Brightseed, which was named to the Forbes AI 50 list this year, is on a mission to catalog the bioactive compounds in the approximate 60,000 edible plant species. So far, it has a library of some 2 million compounds, and it has a goal of extracting 10 million by 2025. Elizondo, who used to work for Boston Consulting Group before meeting Chae and Flatt, says Brightseed believes that humans have only scratched the surface when it comes to identifying and developing compounds found in plants that can benefit people’s health.
Brightseed itself is launching a pipeline of chemicals focused on three areas: metabolic health, cognitive function, and gut health. Next up is a compound found in a plant—the founders won’t say which one—that could help the body manage blood glucose levels, which might be used in conjunction with diabetes medication.
To read the full article, visit: https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2022/05/09/with-a-115-million-war-chest-brightseed-is-unlocking-the-fat-fighting-power-of-hemp/
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