Brightseed and Kallyope announce research collaboration to identify and validate novel bioactives that target weight and blood glucose management

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Brightseed (San Francisco, CA), creator the artificial intelligence platform Forager, has entered into a strategic research collaboration with Kallyope (New York), a biotechnology company that focuses on identifying and developing therapeutics that target the gut-brain axis. The collaboration will leverage Brightseed’s Forager AI to screen plant compounds for potential bioactives, and then utilize Kallyope’s Klarity platform to validate active agents and derive therapeutics from them that target weight management and glucose control. If early-stage research results in the identification of any lead compounds, Kallyope has the rights to derivatize and develop therapeutics in humans, while Kallyope and Brightseed will share rights to consumer applications of identified compounds.

“This collaboration brings together two leading, diverse technological platforms and teams for the discovery of novel consumer products that may have therapeutic benefits for type 2 diabetes and obesity,” said Jay Galeota, president and CEO, Kallyope, in a press release. “We are excited to have the opportunity to work with Brightseed, whose capabilities are highly synergistic with our lead metabolism therapeutics program and deep drug discovery and development expertise. This partnership is also consistent with our strategy to leverage our platform via collaborations in non-core areas that broaden our impact on public health.”

“Seventy-five percent of our current healthcare spending in the U.S. goes towards treating chronic health conditions that severely impair the quality of life of millions of people. We need to reimagine more scalable approaches to combat the scourge of diet-induced chronic conditions,” said Jim Flatt, co-founder and CEO, Brightseed. “Kallyope is one of the visionary pharmaceutical companies that recognize the need to develop health products that can prevent or reduce the risk of certain chronic diseases. Historically, nature has provided the majority of small molecules that are used to inform our medicines. In partnership with Kallyope’s high value gut-brain axis biological targets and technology platform, we will discover the next generation of natural bioactives to improve health and reduce the incidence of diet-related chronic disease.”