Fall 2024

The Colors of Pumpkin Spice Season

Fall is a time of brightly colored treats. Food manufacturers still rely on synthetic petroleum-based dyes like red 3, and yellow 5, to provide the vibrant yellows, reds, and orange hues of the season. The FDA restricted the use of red 3 in topical drugs and cosmetics because of its association with cancer, back in 1990. Despite the restriction, red 3 is allowed as a food and beverage colorant and is commonly found in candy and other treats. Recent studies have linked red 3, yellow 5 and other synthetic food colorants to neurodevelopmental disorders, including ADHD.

California recently banned 6 artificial dyes in school lunches. Ten other states also introduced bills banning specific food dyes. This September the FDA held a public meeting to announce its intent to reassess all food color additives on the market. Red 3 has been banned in Europe since 1994 and is also banned in Japan, China, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Yellow 5 is technically allowed in Europe but must include a warning label, so many food companies have reformulated using natural alternatives like extracts of annatto, beetroot, or spinach to provide color.

Several young companies are developing a new generation of safer biobased colorants for food and other industries. Companies like Michroma, PrismBio, Lite-1 Bio, and Pili Bio use fermentation technologies to produce safer, biobased dyes and colorants that have the potential to perform as well as the existing synthetic dyes.

Creating an AI Tool for Toxicology

The 2024 Noble Prize in Chemistry was awarded to David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John Jumper for developing AlphaFold, a software program that can predict the three-dimensional structure of proteins based on their amino acid sequence. Proteins are the building blocks of life. Understanding a protein’s three-dimensional shape is critical for understanding its function and how it interacts with chemicals.

Chemical toxicity is often the result of unintended interactions between proteins and harmful chemicals. For example, endocrine disruption occurs when synthetic chemicals interact with our hormone receptor proteins. Elucidating how a chemical interacts with proteins in the body and how it affects biological processes downstream is a slow and expensive endeavor, usually reserved for pharmaceutical drug development. There’s no money to be made from studying the protein interactions of small molecules that are not potential drugs.

As computational power and tools for understanding protein-chemical interactions evolve, tools like AlphaFold may drastically lower the costs of understanding these interactions. This could enable a better understanding of how chemicals in our products and environment impact our health.

Some researchers have started screening chemicals for interactions with proteins, potential endocrine activity, and drug potency using tools like AlphaFold and AWSEM, along with available data repositories like the Protein Databank and Endocrine Disruptor Knowledge Base. Similar approaches could be used to predict the toxicity of consumer and industrial chemicals and design safer products.

Safer Made’s Holiday Gift Guide

Give old clothes a pardon from the landfill sentence by giving your loved ones the gift of a Take Back Bag - a return and recycling service combined with rewards accepted by leading brands.

Party with a purpose with Repurpose.

Nike’s Air Pegasus ‘89 golf/walk shoes use GTT’s PFAS-free anti-wick finishing. They look great, and they're great for walking on wet grass, water, or the moon.

Holiday season is also known as the flu season. Force of Nature is the best gift for new families, clean freaks, grandparents, and everyone else.

Many clean beauty products use P2 Science’s Citropol ingredients, including Living Proof styling creams, Sun Bum daily face sunscreen, Sun Bum hair oil, Kala Style lip balm, and California Naturals conditioner.

Nuyarn delivers the best wool thermal regulation, while being light and stretchy without spandex. Available at Artilect or Kuiu.

Defunkify is the best laundry detergent out there. As holiday gift it could be an add on to sports and outdoors apparel. Gifted by itself it could be a message.

Financings

Abolis, a L’Oreal-backed synthetic biology company making ingredients used in cosmetics, healthcare, and other industries, raised $38.8 million.
BaCta, a company engineering bacteria to produce natural rubber, raised $3.6 million.
Brineworks, developing an electrolysis technology to extract hydrogen and carbon dioxide from seawater, raised $2.2 million.
Calyxia makes biodegradable microcapsules for use in agriculture and personal care and raised $35 million in a Series B round.
Citroniq, producer of bio-based polypropylene, raised $12 million.
Circe, a fermentation company making lipid-based ingredients for food, materials, and fuels, raised $5 million.
Earthodic, maker of a plant-based paper coating to replace plastic, raised $4 million.
Micropep, a developer of biological crop protection products using micro-peptides that help control weeds and diseases in crops, raised $11 million.
Mstack Chemicals, a marketplace for source specialty chemicals, raised $40 million.
NotPLA, creator of packaging materials made from seaweed and plants, raised $26.5 million.
Ookuma Diamond Device, maker of diamond-based microchips from radioactive debris at nuclear power plants, raised $27 million.
PACT, a company producing collagen biomaterials for use in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and food production, raised $12 million.
Paebbl, a company turning CO₂ into concrete and other building materials, raised a $25 million.
Puraffinity, creator of advanced adsorbent materials designed to remove PFAS from water, raised $22.1 million.
Sallea, creator of edible scaffolds for cell-based meat raised $2.6 million.
Solasta Bio, maker of peptide-based biopesticides that target harmful insects without harming beneficial species like pollinators, raised $14 million.
Sort A Brick, a company cleaning, sorting, and repurposing old LEGO bricks, raised $1.3 million.
Switch Bioworks, developer of sustainable nitrogen fertilizers using engineered microbes, raised $17 million.
Tidal Metals, developer of an environmentally friendly way to extract magnesium from seawater, raised $8.5 million.
Twelve, developer of a process to transform CO₂ into jet fuel and plastics, raised $200 million.
Utility Global, a company converting industrial waste gases such as syngas and hydrogen into fuels, raised $53 million.
Windmill, a company selling energy-efficient air conditioners and air purifiers, raised $5 million.