BIOMILQ—a startup culturing mammary cells to produce bioactives found in breastmilk—has filed for bankruptcy amid a protracted IP dispute with the ex-husband of one of the cofounders that she says rendered the firm “uninvestable and unacquirable.”
Founded in 2020 by cell biologist Dr. Leila Strickland and food scientist Michelle Egger, North Carolina-based BIOMILQ originally planned to produce cell-cultured human milk in bioreactors full of “lactating” mammary epithelial cells. It later pivoted to using the cells as mini-biofactories to produce high-value bioactives found in breastmilk such as human milk oligosaccharides, osteopontin, and exosomes.
The firm, which has raised $24.5 million from investors…
