A new peer reviewed scientific study carried out by the key co-founders of Chrysea, has been published in the prestigious journal Nature Catalysis and shows that baker’s yeast can be designed and optimised to produce polyamines and polyamine analogues for tackling grand challenges in both the health and agricultural sector. This ground breaking study describes a bio-based yeast platform for high-level production of diverse polyamines and more importantly, further shows the versatility of biocatalysis and the utility of conceptualizing metabolism as distinct modules, paving the way for biocatalysis of functional polyamines with diverse applications in plant, animal, and human health.

The team of scientists explored seven biosynthetic routes that synthesises spermidine from arginine or ornithine and by employing flux balance analysis they could estimate the maximum theoretical yield of each pathway.

One of the most interesting molecules to study was spermidine, which is a natural product already present in people’s blood and an inducer of autophagy that is an essential cellular process for clearing damaged proteins, e.g., misfolded proteins in brain cells that can cause Alzheimer’s. When people get older the level of spermidine in the blood decrease and dietary supplements, or certain food products are needed to maintain a stable and high level of spermidine in the blood. However, those products are difficult to produce with traditional chemistry due to their structural complexity and extraction of natural resources is neither a commercially viable nor a sustainable approach. Chrysea’s value added natural ingredients are produced by cost-effective and scaleable processes, to a consistent, robust and high-quality specification, both up to nutraceutical and pharmaceutical grade standards. The design of scientifically supported benefit claims, observed in well-designed and conclusive clinical trials is a value added activity which will enable Chrysea to be a frontrunner in the healthy-ageing field.

About Chrysea

Chrysea is a company developing healthy-lifespan nutritional and supplementation interventions supported by rigorous clinical research, aimed at optimising natural occurring mechanisms of successful ageing such as autophagy. The vision of the company is to make a contribution to the shift of focus from “disease”, to managing “wellness” and/or “functionality”. Instead of diagnosing diseases at a point in time, trajectories across an individual and eventually a populations life course, are being addressed to delay the onset of certain age/related diseases. More specifically in situations where the process of autophagy plays anti-ageing potential benefits.

About Autophagy

Autophagy, meaning “self-devouring” in Greek, is a highly conserved and natural regulated mechanism of cells that declines as humans age. Autophagy removes unnecessary or dysfunctional components from an organism. It allows the orderly degradation and recycling of cellular debris which need to be “cleaned up” to allow for cells to function properly. Defects in autophagy as we age have been linked to various age-related human diseases, including neurodegeneration and cardiovascular ageing. The identification of the mechanisms of autophagy by Japanese researcher Yoshinori Ohsumi, eventually led him to the award of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.