R&D collaboration combines Shiru’s AI-discovery platform with Ingredion’s global formulation expertise and scale to bring next-generation natural prebiotics to market faster Shiru, named a TIME Best Invention of 2024 for…

R&D collaboration combines Shiru’s AI-discovery platform with Ingredion’s global formulation expertise and scale to bring next-generation natural prebiotics to market faster

Shiru, named a TIME Best Invention of 2024 for its AI-powered approach to ingredient discovery, and Ingredion Inc., a leading global ingredient solutions provider, announced a global R&D collaboration to accelerate the discovery and commercialisation of novel functional proteins for food, beverage, supplements, and specialised nutrition.

Ingredion and Shiru will engage in a joint R&D program enabled by Shiru’s proprietary AI discovery platform—the industry’s broadest searchable database of functional protein ingredients, with more than 77 million natural protein sequences catalogued and analysed.

“We have broken the mould on how ingredient discovery is done,” said Dr. Jasmin Hume, founder and CEO of Shiru. “Disrupting the speed at which we can identify high-performance natural proteins has opened the floodgates for healthy, targeted nutrition. What once took a team of 50 scientists a decade and a healthy dose of serendipity, we can now do strategically and efficiently in months. Pairing that capability with Ingredion’s scale and customer relationships creates a direct path from discovery to market.”

The collaboration will focus on the development of next-generation prebiotics derived from natural sources to promote healthier microbiomes, an area where AI-driven protein discovery is creating new possibilities that conventional R&D cannot easily access.

As the evidence linking gut microbiome health to immunity, metabolic function and cognitive performance expands, CPG companies face increasing pressure to reformulate with ingredients that are both clinically credible and manufacturable at scale. This strategic partnership is directly focused on meeting that demand.

Ingredients developed through the joint research will have a path to Ingredion’s 18,000+ customers across 120 countries.

“As consumer expectations rise, food companies need new ways to move faster and innovate smarter,” said Michael Leonard, chief innovation officer at Ingredion. “Shiru helps us discover better natural ingredients more quickly so we can help our customers deliver new products at a pace the market expects.”

The partnership follows Shiru’s commercial launch of uPro and OleoPro (two AI-discovered natural ingredients now on the market for use in food and personal care) and builds on Ingredion’s strategic push to expand its Texture & Healthful Solutions portfolio through external innovation.