Understand our Platform’s innovative capabilties
Yes, safety is a key benefit of our platform. Consistency is also a major advantage, which further increases the safety of our technology and process. Light is an abundant, highly controllable, and predictable input that has played a role in cellular control in countless organisms since the dawn of time.
Our process uses light, which acts as a signal to control the light-sensitive proteins (LSP) and direct cellular behavior. We procure these from a wide range of natural sources, including widely consumed plant foods like cabbage, mustard greens, and spirulina.
We use ‘non-ionizing’ light at relatively low intensities in our process, which means it doesn’t carry enough energy to harm living cells. It is safe for use in the production of both food and non-food products.
No, we use light doses well below the phototoxic threshold to ensure cell health.
We have experimented with intentionally increasing light intensity and duration to induce phototoxicity, but these conditions were far outside our operational range. By tuning the activation threshold and kinetics in line with desired behavior, we can ensure that light levels stay below the phototoxic threshold, even at scale.
A long history of safe consumption exists for light sensitive proteins (LSP), which are the proteins that power our process. We procure these from a wide range of natural sources, including widely consumed plant foods like cabbage, mustard greens, and spirulina. We have embedded safety controls in every step of our process.
We are already in contact with regulators and plan to collaborate proactively and often as we work to commercialize this new technology alongside our partners.