Scientists find novel uses for the goodness in our food

AN IRISH firm has found a way of extracting molecules from food for use in everything from cereal bars and face creams to medicines.

Now Dublin-based biotechnology firm Nuritas has won an award in California for its innovative work.

It won the 2015 SVG Thrive Accelerator Award at the Forbes Reinventing America Ag Tech summit this week. Nuritas was selected as one of ten finalists out of 100 entries from across the world.

The biotechnology company uses modern technology to discover molecules known as peptides in food for use in s upplements and even f or pharmaceuticals.

Peptides are pieces of proteins with potential health benefits. Nuritas isolates them for use in products as diverse as face creams and granola bars.

Nuritas chief executive Emmet Browne told RTÉ Radio: ‘What we do is we unlock nature’s hidden secrets, bioactive peptides, which are encrypted within food.

‘People didn’t realise how to access them quickly and rapidly. What we do is we bring modern technology, algorithms, mathematics, to the oldest substance in earth, food, and unlock those secrets.

‘We can change people’s health’

‘We change people’s health by unlocking those peptides.’

Nuritas claims it can unlock the peptides ten times faster than conventional research methods and with 380 times more the predictability of discovery and for one thousandth of the cost.

In just one year, Nuritas has discovered 20 such peptides, four of which are proving particularly useful.

‘The first is inflammation, which is at the root of nearly all illnesses in mankind,’ said Mr Browne yesterday.

‘Second is anti-ageing. Obviously with an ageing population worldwide, that’s a major area.

‘The third is the whole muscle recovery, which is of benefit not just to the sports injury arena but also to people who are elderly and immobile. Effectively what it does is it mimics insulin and the only one shown to do likewise. The final area is the whole area of antimicrobials which works very effectively on MRSA [an antibiotic-resistant germ].’

Two of the peptides – which regulate blood glucose levels – have been developed and patented and there are plans to use them to target the prevention and onset of diabetes.

Nuritas was established in 2013 by Nora Khaldi, a mathematician with a doctorate in molecular evolution and bioinformatics.