Current Opportunities - Startup, Philanthropic

Lactation Biologics: Increasing Milk Production for Healthier Babies

A long-lasting, self-injectable treatment to help nursing mothers feed their babies naturally

Interested in Lactation Biologics?

The team is currently seeking clinical, venture capital, and philanthropic partners to advance their therapy into clinical testing. Please get in touch if you are interested in working with us or supporting this project.

Platform

Synthetic Biology

Technology Development Team

Kasia Kready Pamela Silver

Key Features

Engineered protein therapeutic to enhance milk supply
Increases the serum persistence of prolactin, the natural hormonal driver of lactation
Has been extensively designed and de-risked to overcome the unique drug development challenges related to lactating parents and their infants

Interested in Lactation Biologics?

The Problem

Infants are born to breastfeed, but 50% of lactating people struggle to make enough milk for them. Despite this “silent epidemic,” there are no FDA-approved drugs to increase milk supply. While baby formula is available as an alternative, the medical community unquestionably agrees that breastmilk provides better nutrition than formula and should be the primary source of food for newborns. Baby formula is also subject to supply chain disruptions and recalls, and requires access to clean water, which is often not available during power outages, climate disasters, and in conflict zones. These problems together make breastfeeding even more vital for vulnerable infants and parents around the world.

Our Solution

Lactation Biologics: Increasing Milk Production for Healthier Babies — Prolactin-XL is designed to produce the same milk-stimulating effects of natural prolactin while solving several problems that have prevented it from being a viable treatment. Prolactin is a small molecule that is rapidly excreted by the kidneys, but Prolactin-XL is larger and is not excreted, meaning it stays in the body longer. It can be self-administered via injections (like insulin shots), induces milk production in mammary cells, and is engineered to be more digestible to reduce the likelihood that it will be transferred from the mother to the infant. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University

We’re developing protein therapeutics to increase lactation. Prolactin is a naturally occurring protein in lactating parents that drives milk production, but it has limited potential as a drug because it does not persist very long in the body, and must be injected twice a day to enhance milk supply. Our Lactation Biologics team has attached prolactin to a larger molecule that helps it stay in the body longer and boost lactation for a sustained period of time. The engineered therapeutic fusion protein is called Prolactin-eXtra Long (Prolactin-XL).

Our Prolactin-XL has a half-life in the blood of 2,625-fold longer than prolactin alone in mice (71 hours versus about one minute). In studies in milk-insufficient female mice, those that received Prolactin-XL had larger pups that weighed more than mice that did not receive the treatment. Enhancing prolactin’s persistence in the body makes it a viable solution for lactating people. By enhancing prolactin’s persistence, Prolactin-XL could become a viable solution for breastfeeding parents that could be taken as an everyday booster, and/or stockpiled for emergency situations, akin to vaccines and essential medicines. It could also help advance health equity and create resilient infant feeding systems in an age of increasing natural disasters and climate crises.

Enhancing Lactation to Improve Infant and Maternal Health — Lactation Biologics is developing a long-lasting, self-injectable treatment to help nursing mothers feed their babies naturally, helping them get the best nutrition possible in the face of climate disasters and supply chain disruptions. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University