BCD Bioscience Receives Research Grant to Create Functional Oligosaccharides

DAVIS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- BCD Bioscience (http://www.bcdbio.com; “BCD”), a carbohydrate-mediated solution provider, announces that it has been awarded a grant by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to create functional oligosaccharides or glycan for human health and nutrition applications. Under the terms of this grant, BCD will produce the glycan pools by running its patent-pending digestion process on a range of high fiber natural materials. The glycans will be screened by BCD and other Gates Foundation collaborators in a range of microbiome, anti-inflammatory and immune modulation assays, to evaluate their potential to enhance nutrition and health.

“BCD is excited to deploy our novel approach to potentially address a range of the developing world’s needs,” said Dr. Steve Watkins, CEO of BCD. “Enteric diseases and malnutrition have a dramatic impact in low-resource geographies. Establishing a healthy microbiome by introducing specific glycans in the diet has the potential to support and enhance digestive health to impact length and quality of life.”

Though glycans have been produced and consumed for a number of years, the current number of commercially available glycans is limited. Given this, their functional utility and selectivity is also restricted. BCD has the unique capability to create, characterize and screen thousands of unique structures from nature that are not readily available for testing. With support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, BCD will be able to more quickly produce greater structural diversity for mining across a range of health-enhancing applications.

About BCD Bioscience

BCD Bioscience (formerly known as Calyxo Biosystems) catalogs the broadly untapped world of natural carbohydrate structures to efficiently create and commercialize novel prebiotics, synbiotics and immuno-modulatory therapies for human and animal health. A spin-out out of the University of California, Davis; the company was founded in early 2019 by professors Dr. Carlito Lebrilla, Dr. David Mills and Dr. Bruce German. To learn more, visit www.bcdbio.com, or contact info@bcdbio.com.

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