Advancing healthspan with the next generation of nutrients

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HOW WE BEGAN

The spark for Helaina hit CEO Laura Katz on the New York City subway. She was listening to a podcast about black-market breast milk. It featured moms’ stories of going to extreme lengths to get the powerful nutritional benefits of breast milk for their babies. This made her wonder if human bioactive compounds might also serve other populations. What if we could make and scale those compounds to improve health for all phases of life?

Helaina was founded in 2019 on the premise that nutrients must be more impactful and multifunctional for all people and the planet.

OUR VISION FOR THE FUTURE

Soon every baby and adult in the world will be eating effera™, Helaina’s Human Lactoferrin.

Helaina’s technology platform powers a bioactive protein pipeline that will advance human healthspan. Helaina’s bioactive proteins will become a new category of nutrients.

FROM R&D TO COMMERCIALIZATION

The team started by evaluating the scientific data on human bioactive proteins to select the most effective option to bring to market.

Ideation transitioned to the lab, where the team ran thousands of experiments to develop Helaina’s tech stack for making human proteins outside the body.

Once achieving lab-scale manufacturing, the team ran commercial manufacturing campaigns to ensure the process could be replicated with high quality. The manufactured product was tested for quality, safety and functionality

Helaina ran its first clinical study to ensure effera’s™ safety for adults in 2023.

Meet Laura Katz

Laura Katz, food scientist, is Founder and CEO of Helaina. Laura became NYU’s youngest ever adjunct professor in Food Science & Technology in 2017 and was featured in Forbes’ 30 under 30 list in 2022.

Prior to Helaina, Laura developed food products for NUGGS, Plated, and Dylan’s Candy Bar. Laura has reached viral success as a food scientist, generating 60M+ views via an 11-episode stint as the expert food scientist for Epicurious’ 4-Levels video series.
She has presented at Collision, Food Hack, Fortune Most Powerful Women NextGen, Future Food Tech, Harvard Business School and Web Summit.
She earned a Master’s in Food Studies from NYU, and a Bachelor of Sciences in Food Science and Technology from Western University. In her free time, she can be found hanging out with her husband, son Leo, and their Italian Water Dog, Fontina Prosciutto, and writing recipes in hopes of one day publishing a cookbook.

A WORLD CLASS TEAM

We have an enthusiastic, diverse team of the best and brightest from all backgrounds and walks of life. Our scientists, engineers, and business professionals collaborate to achieve what has never been done before - bringing bioactive human proteins to food. Do you like to push the boundaries of what’s possible?

Join Us