Parmi les nouvelles biotechnologies de l’année, le magazine Wired signale la production de lait infantile par la société Biomilq, à partir des cellules épithéales mammaires prélevées sur la mère, afin que le produit soit parfaitement adapté à l’enfant. Une fois prélevées, les cellules sont cultivées en laboratoire afin de reproduire le lait de la mère : “Baby cows drink cow milk and baby goats drink goat milk. Every mammal makes the milk that’s perfectly optimized for its infant’s development. But for working (human) parents, nursing or pumping breast milk can be both logistically and physically difficult. Enter BioMilq, which was founded by a woman cell biologist and a woman food scientist. The company collects mammary epithelial cells while a person is expecting. The cells are cultivated in BioMilq’s facility and stimulated to produce human milk that is personalized (literally!) for that person’s infant. Last year, the company raised $3.5 million in capital to optimize milk production and to expand its team. If we can make tasty burgers in a cell culture plate, human milk should be a nutritional slam dunk » relate le magazine Wired (1).

Les explications techniques proposées par la société Biomilq sur cette reproduction de la biologie de la lactation sont les suivantes : « During pregnancy, milk-making cells (called mammary epithelial cells) multiply in number dramatically in preparation for lactation. When the baby is born, shifts in the mother’s blood chemistry trigger the onset of milk production—isn’t the female body astounding! The fundamental methods we’re using are safe and widely used: culturing mammary cells outside the body and leveraging their natural ability to produce 2500+ components of breastmilk in the perfect constellation. During a prenatal visit, mammary epithelial cells will be collected from an expectant mother. The cells will then shipped to the BIOMILQ facility, where they will be cultured in nutrient solution that provides the energy and precursors needed for milk synthesis. When enough cells are present, they will be stimulatedto produce milk using same molecular cues present in the mother’s body during lactation. We will then collect the natural product secreted from the cells and package it  for shipment to families everywhere ».

1- The Best of CES 2021. These are the products, prototypes, and ideas that did the best job of signaling the future at this year’s consumer tech showcase ». Wired, 13 janvier 2020.

2 – https://www.biomilq.com/science