For the past three years, BIOMILQ has been fortunate enough to attend, speak, and present at the International Milk Genomics Consortium (IMGC) Symposium. IMGC is a flagship conference that features the most “cutting-edge scientific research and discoveries in milk science and their applications for human health” (IMGC). This year was the 20th annual symposium, and a wonderful opportunity to appreciate the acceleration of discovery in milk science that the community has encouraged. At BIOMILQ, we want to ensure that our work is focused on the most impactful applications of our technology, and IMGC is a fantastic place to showcase our progress, receive feedback on what we are building, and learn about other ground breaking milk research being done. With worldwide attendance from the leaders who are moving milk forward in both academia and industry, BIOMILQ has returned from the symposium energized by new ideas and a growing list of collaborations that will guide our strategy going forward.
The Takeaways
Human milk and lactation remain largely understudied given how important these processes are to our health on an individual and societal level. Attending events like IMGC is crucial to expanding our knowledge on milk as its complexities are so vast. The IMGC Symposium hosts a group of attendees that are largely diverese in their areas of expertise. Each attendee brings deep understandings of different aspects of milk’s components and classes of molecules.
In every day life, milk is such a common and familiar thing; most people don’t think too much about it. But it’s also almost miraculous in its function and complexity. The proliferation of advanced analytical methodologies in recent years has enabled a much deeper understanding of milk than has never before been possible, and there is so much opportunity to apply these discoveries. It’s a fantastic time to be working on a new technology that will enable more people to benefit from our rapidly accelerating appreciation and understanding of milk.
Moving Forward
This year, BIOMILQ presented two scientific posters on some of our latest research, and our CEO & co-founder Leila Strickland gave a scientific talk highlighting the benefits of our mammary-based production platform compared with alternative technologies. We’re so excited to have received an enthusiastic response to our premise that human mammary cells are capable of creating the most functional forms of human milk components when compared to other systems.
As we prioritize learning from our incredible scientific communities, BIOMILQ is moving forward in the field of milk research, inspired by the bright minds and ideas shared at IMGC.
“Meetings like IMGC accelerate our progress by shining a light on the most exciting breakthroughs in the field. Scientists are learning more and more about what milk does and how it affects the body, and these insights have a big impact on our strategy as we carefully prioritize our resources to focus on creating products that will make a maximum impact on human health.”
~ Leila Strickland, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder, BIOMILQ
BIOMILQ is a women-owned and science-led mammary biotechnology start-up leveraging its patented technology to produce functional cell-cultured human milk components outside of the body. To bridge the gap between breast milk and infant formula, BIOMILQ aims to revolutionize early-life nutrition by bringing more of the benefits of breast milk to more babies.