Motif FoodWorks Announces Strategic Investment in NemaLife, Inc.

The collaboration will support Motif's rapid food-technology product pipeline by utilizing in vivo testing for functional properties of plant-based proteins.

BOSTON, May 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Motif FoodWorks, the Boston-based food technology company making plant-based foods better tasting and more nutritious, today announced a technology development partnership and investment with NemaLife Inc., a Lubbock-based microfluidics screening platform company. Motif is investing to develop and utilize Nemalife's unique in vivo testing and protein characterization platform that is new to the food and beverage space.

By using a microfluidics approach, NemaLife can test and categorize bench-scale proteins using far less volume of sample products than testing mechanisms today allow. This approach can more quickly and affordably help to identify Motif's next breakthrough food-tech by testing the validity in terms of health effects, safety, and effectiveness. The data can also help guide R&D decisions, marketing claims, and streamline large-scale commercialization.

"The long-term potential of NemaLife's screening technology could open the door for not only Motif, but the entire food and beverage industry," said Stefan Baier, Motif's Head of Food Science. "Identifying the most viable proteins from precision fermentation is not enough. We need to understand how these animal-free equivalents might perform as food technology. Using NemaLife's AI-assisted microfluidic screening platforms will provide an early assessment that ensures a protein has the right functional characteristics and in vivo performance on its own and during formulation."

The current model of novel ingredient testing is a slow and resource intensive process, taking months, if not years, and requires samples of newly developed ingredients that are often not initially available in large quantities. NemaLife's AI-assisted microfluidics screening platform can test small amounts of new ingredients in a matter of weeks. Using NemaLife's platform, Motif will be able to de-risk and accelerate its product development to generate safe and functional food-technologies with improved taste, texture and nutrition compared to alternative dairy and plant-based foods.

"We are excited to further our work with the Motif team on NemaLife's rapidly growing in vivo and physical characterization platforms to determine the most promising ingredients," said Siva Vanapalli, CEO of NemaLife Inc. "Motif's science-driven focus is at the frontier of plant-based innovation. Our team of engineers, biologists and food scientists are excited to partner with Motif to achieve a more sustainable future for healthy plant-based foods."

About Motif FoodWorks
Motif FoodWorks makes plant-based foods so desirable that people actually crave them. Motif provides companies with a range of food-technologies and finished food forms, from solutions for meat and dairy alternatives to experiences that inspire new categories. By pioneering breakthrough approaches to food science and the culinary arts, Motif is pushing the boundaries of what's possible in plant-based foods – delivering innovations for taste, texture and nutrition that benefit people and the planet. For more information, visit www.madewithmotif.com.

About NemaLife
NemaLife is a biotech platform company developing AI and microfluidics-based solutions for various industries to reduce the costs and carbon footprint associated with screening. Its low-cost whole organism and functional assays help de-risk and accelerate product development by providing actionable data that reduce the use of mammals. NemaLife's technologies are built with scalability and versatility in mind, helping innovative companies and academic laboratories accelerate their R&D and scientific discoveries, with the aim of improving the quality of human life on a healthy planet.  For more information, visit www.nemalifeinc.com

Media Contacts
Julia Dacri
Motif FoodWorks
[email protected]

Marton Toth
NemaLife
[email protected]

SOURCE Motif FoodWorks