For decades, manufacturers have traded off the full functional benefits of dairy in favor of necessary food safety and shelf life, but the biotech startup Exosomm says it has found a way for manufacturers to have both without compromise.
The unlock: a proprietary process for preserving naturally occurring milk exosomes without synthetic additives or chemical modification as an enriched whey protein powder that is commercially viable and scientifically backed.
“Exosomes are tiny particles that are found in many liquids, even in your body, and they are nature’s oldest and most sophisticated communication system,” CEO Rachelle Neumann said.
“They are like the DHL between the cells in the body. One cell wants to communicate to another cell, so it packages up all the things that it needs, sends it to the other cell and then you have execution when the cargo is released and the downstream pathways are triggered,” she explained.
One example is human breast milk, in which naturally occurring exosomes contain microRNAs that research suggests play an important role in infant development, Neumann said.
Exosomm discovered cow milk also includes exosomes, which research conducted by the startup showed reduced Inflammatory Bowel Disease inflammation, boosted glucose tolerance and prevented pancreatic and liver damage.
According to the company, milk exosomes can survive digestion and interact with biological systems in ways traditional ingredients cannot, allowing them to deliver bioactive signals linked to gut health, immune function and inflammation management.
These benefits are delivered via extracellular vesicles that are absorbed in the epithelial cells in the gut where the exosomes release their cargo, explained CTO Efrat Davash Riesenfeld.
“Their cargo is all sorts of things: proteins, bioactives, microRNAs, active lipids. And each one of them has a different effect,” including therapeutic and anti-inflammatory effect on colitis in published research, she added.
“There is also science that shows an effect between the epithelial cells that tightens the gut barrier so there is less leakiness” and bleeding in people Crohn disease and colitis, she said.
The biggest obstacle is preserving exosomes
However, exosomes are fragile and modern food safety processing destroys them, so consumers do not benefit from them through normal dairy intake, including consumption of milk or yogurt, said Neumann.
“We realized this is really a mess, and we should be able to take advantage of exosomes. So, we found a way in which we can actually guarantee and bring to the table these exosomes in a bioactive and preserved way through a whey protein concentrate enriched with bioactive exosomes,” she said.
The company recovers the exosomes from whey leftover from cheesemaking which otherwise would have limited value – creating a valuable, sustainable business opportunity for dairy producers.
Exosomm then creates a powder that has a shelf life of a year, is standardized and ready to formulate into multiple platforms, such as bars and drink mixes, said Neumann.
“This is a premium product for many reasons: the novelty and the mechanism of action,” she explained. “This is not another postbiotic or prebiotic or other ingredient that is currently on the market. All of them are great, and of course have science that supports their claims, but this is something different. This is not just another ingredient.”
From scientific promise to commercial reality
The company is in the process of gaining GRAS status, but Neumann said it has an opinion letter from a regulatory consultant stating that it is able to commercialize the ingredient because it ultimately is “only milk.”
The company has large-scale manufacturing capabilities and reliable supply potential for global markets, but it is open to partnering with manufacturers – especially in the US – either through a joint venture or by licensing the technology, Neumann said.
Whether milk exosomes ultimately become a mainstream functional ingredient will depend on regulatory progress, commercial adoption and continued clinical validation. But Exosomm’s approach reflects a broader shift in functional nutrition from simply adding more ingredients to preserving the biological activity already found in nature.
If the company can deliver on that promise at scale, manufacturers may no longer have to choose between food safety and functionality.
