Cruelty-free Collagen
During her final year of post-graduate studies, Stephanie Michelsen developed a passion for alternative protein. Soon she realised however, that more than meat would need to be re-imagined if we were to transition to an animal-free and friendly future. Fast forward to now and Stephanie is the co-founder and CEO of Jellatech: an early-stage startup working on creating cell-based collagen and gelatin. In this episode we chat to Stephanie about why collagen and the science behind the process, as well as what makes collagen so unique as a protein. We also discuss the advantages of using animal cells over precision-fermentation, bioreactor innovation, differences to cell-based meat, and future opportunities for the company.
Even whilst studying biotechnology, Stephanie Michelson has always wanted to be an entrepreneur. After finishing her post-graduate studies in 2020, she was able to take the leap and start Jellatech, a company focussed on creating animal-friendly collagen.
Stephanie: “I always was super inspired by entrepreneurship … taking an idea and turning it into a product ending up someone’s hands, ideally something that would better the world, the planet and its inhabitants.”
However, unlike others in the space who are creating cell and plant-based meats and dairy, Stephanie and her cofounder have taken a different approach focussing on industry byproducts such as gelatin.
Stephanie: “After that fellowship program I went back to Copenhagen to wrap up my Masters … and it made me think how is this transition actually going to take place… it’s unrealistic to assume it’s just an overnight thing.”
Stephanie: “There are still things from the animal agriculture industry that we get that are important, and that are very difficult to reproduce outside animals.”
She then began thinking about what people would miss the most if we were to make that overnight transition to a fully vegan society.
Stephanie: “Things like egg-white protein … and then you have collagen and gelatin which are also so unique and are really interesting functional proteins that are also exclusive to the animal kingdom.”
Stephanie: “They go into so many products … we don’t even think about. That’s why I was inspired to support this green transition whilst having a realistic approach … where we think about the by-products.”
Diving deeper into the science we wanted to learn what it was about these proteins that made them so suitable for multiple applications, as well as why a cell-based approach was the best path forward.
Firstly, it’s important to note the structure of collagen; it’s a triple helix made of 3 protein strands that come together. They are then post-translationally modified which gives us final, native and fully functional collagen.
Stephanie: “That’s something that animal cells are more advanced than things like microorganisms … they have organelles that enable them to do other things and one of those is post-translational modification.”
Stephanie: “There are companies that are making collagen using fermentation approaches, but what you’ll find is that they’re actually making collagen peptides, so that’s part of the protein.”
Stephanie: “That’s really great for applications like supplements… or maybe cosmetic applications where you don’t need it to have this functional ability, but when it comes to gelatin, food and bev or medical applications, you really need it to be that fully functional native collagen with all three strands and the post-translational modifications, because that’s what makes collagen unique.”
Stephanie: “We already know that the cells can make it, so we don’t need to do a whole bunch of engineering … whereas if you’re looking at microorganisms you’d need to engineer them to produce, fold and secrete it, so that’s years of engineering.”
Stephanie: “Instead of taking a car and making it be able to fly, we take an airplane and make it fly better.”
And there seems to be a need for it, as the gelatin market continues to grow.
Stephanie: “It is a growing market, the demand is growing; at the same time we realise that animal agriculture is at capacity … we have to figure out new ways to fulfil that demand.”
So how does the collagen manufacturing process actually work?
Stephanie: “What we do is we can take a skin biopsy from a pig, cow, or human; then we take those cells, culture and immortalise them … and then from that one biopsy we can make a bunch of cells … then they will continue to produce collagen for you which you can harvest.”
This reminded me of our interview with Turtletree, where the company is similarly using immortalised cells to secrete relevant milk proteins.
Stephanie: “The cells themselves are not the product, it’s just a protein that they make; you can think of it as a hybrid between fermentation and cell-based agriculture”
Stephanie: “There’s no need to go to this big scale and grow an entire animal, because all we’re using is a small part of it.”
Stephanie: “The collagen synthesis is continuous, and there are ways in which we optimise that as well”
Stephanie is also hopeful that this approach will enable them to reduce cost.
Stephanie: “One of the expensive things about cell-culture is about getting the cells to proliferate … whereas for us we only need to do it until a certain point and then the collagen synthesis is continuous”
This difference in manufacturing also invites a number of opportunities when it comes to the innovation of bioreactors, with Stephanie emphasising the potential for improvements to be made in the space.
Stephanie: “We are working with some bio-reactor companies … and we’re also doing some in-house R&D on that as well.”
The company is currently working on human, porcine, bovine and marine collagen, but new technologies mean potential new products.
Stephanie: “In the future we do want to make new kinds of things like jellyfish collagen, which is actually quite exciting.”
Stephanie: “We’re focussing on all of them because they have applications in different areas, but right now the main one that we’ve gotten interest in is our bovine collagen.”
Image: Jellatech’s prototype, sourced from The Spoon.
Stephanie went on to discuss Jellatech’s focus on getting a variety of partners, but within that also the importance of having a methodology for deciding appropriate collaborations.
Stephanie: “Our first sample is going out to a big fashion house to use it for materials applications, which is super cool. We also have some in the confectionary and biomedical space, so they all tie into the three big [categories].”
Stephanie: “What I’ve done is tried to break it down to science and numbers; we have this matrix with a few different parameters, things like technical success, the regulatory landscape … the size of the company … breaking it down to this rating system.”
Stephanie: “Thinking about what we want out of this partnership … really try to make sure that it’s a win-win and that we can gain something, because I think that’s really important.”
We also discussed the regulatory landscape of each sector, and the advantages that launching in different sectors have.
Stephanie: “I think that’s what’s really exciting, that collagen does tie into so many sectors, that way we can actually focus on the areas where it’s more loosely regulated or potentially in places where we need less.”
This is because in food and beverage applications, products like gelatin are currently cheaper due to being industry by-products and therefore are more difficult to get profit from. On the other hand, biomedical applications require far less collagen, but it’s sold at a premium price.
Stephanie: “We can use these more niche applications … to feed us into scaling and then once we get to a more price-competitive point then we can start thinking about the bigger applications where you need larger amounts of collagen and gelatin.”
Stephanie: “We’re trying to stay non-biased and take a scientific approach, thinking about what makes the most sense for us at the time and place that we’re in right now.”
So what does the future hold for the company?
Stephanie: “Definitely a lot of optimisation and then scale-up. I cannot wait to get to larger scale because again I really really really want to work with more exciting partners and be able to get a product out there.”
Stephanie: “From a personal perspective I would love to incorporate a bit of science communication and education; I think we’re going to be seeing a lot more cell-based biotech for food applications … I would love to be able to communicate effectively and educate people more.”
Stephanie also disclosed the fact that the Jellatech team are all making the move to North Carolina in early June, where they can centralise their operations and be under one roof.
Stephanie: “I think we’ve been very lucky to have self-driven and motivated people and I think that’s really important at such an early stage.”
To learn more you can head to Jellatech’s website, or follow them on social media.