History of Advanced BioNutrition – Science-based Solutions to Nutritional and Bioactives Delivery Challenges.
Advanced BioNutrition Corp. was founded in 2001, having as its roots technology developed at Martek Biosciences Corporation (NASDQ:MATK) many years earlier by a co-founder of Martek and the founder of Advanced BioNutrition.
The growing importance of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and arachidonic acid (ARA) in human infant and maternal nutrition was seen by the imaginative scientists that started ABN to be a path to be paralleled in the animal field. The team focused initially on aquaculture, which was utilizing 65% of all fishmeal and 80% of all fish oil produced as sources of DHA to fuel the unprecedented growth of that industry. ABN believed that there was an impending crisis in the overfishing of this resource and focused on a program to produce an environmentally responsible, sustainable alternative using algae, not fish.
In 2002 ABN became the worldwide exclusive licensee of Martek’s patents pertaining to the use of algal DHA in all animal applications and then proceeded to test this material for practical application. In 2004 the first environmentally friendly, totally vegetarian-grown shrimp were produced in research farms operated by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources using the ABN technology.
The innovative scientists at ABN did not stop at the aquaculture industry. Working with top academic institutions around the world, the ABN team developed new understandings of the critical nature of DHA nutrition for farm animals as well as companion and performance animals. This led to a number of product launches in the swine, petfood, and horse nutrition areas. In 2007 these products and technologies were licensed to Martek’s new Animal Science Division so that ABN could concentrate on the aquaculture industry.
The growing commercial popularity of economically priced fish like tilapia, pangasius, and catfish, results in the beginnings of a consumer perception dilemma. Cultured without the use of fishmeal or fish oil, these species provide little or no nutritional DHA to the consumers. ABN scientists, in conjunction with Brooklyn College, NY, demonstrated that the DHA level of tilapia could be raised significantly by the inclusion of AquaGrow Gold® in the diet of the fish. Driven by this discovery, ABN has embarked on a program to license this solution to tilapia producers to produce a DHA-enriched, nutritionally adequate product produced by sustainable methods.
Recognizing a need for improved stability of gut-friendly bacteria (Probiotics), ABN scientists aggressively pursued a developmental program to protect and deliver bioactives so they could be effectively utilized and the discovered solutions have become a part of the Company’s flagship delivery technology – the MicroMatrix™ - Targeted Delivery Systems - commercially introduced for the first time at the Institute of Food Technology Annual Meeting in 2008
The MicroMatrix represents a stabilization and delivery concept, originally designed for probiotics, but now recognized as a tool for the delivery of many types of labile biological materials from small molecules (e.g., vitamins, pigments, or growth promoters/inhibitors) to larger molecules (e.g., essential oils or enzymes). Working together with an aquatic animal vaccine company in Chile, ABN scientists developed an innovation in the MicroMatrix technology that converted that company’s injectible bacterin vaccine for salmon into an orally delivered vaccine and booster. In early 2009, this new oral vaccine, which helps to alleviate a major disease control problem in the salmon industry, was approved for commercial use in Chile. With a business team including engineers and scientists working exclusively on development and scale up of new applications for the MicroMatrix - Targeted Delivery Systems, ABN is now working together with a significant number of the world’s largest companies in a concerted effort to solve their delivery technology challenges.
From a small group of visionary scientists with a focus on nutrition and a passion for environmental sustainability in 2001, ABN has grown into a diversified provider of solutions in areas ranging from meeting nutritional challenges for DHA enrichment of tilapia to delivering stabilized bioactives for various applications. Throughout its short history, ABN has proudly led with strong science-based solutions that have been followed with innovative business development to commercialize products and technologies that today are financially sustainable and environmentally responsible, thereby providing a better world for our children, and our children's children.
