Empowered Patient Podcast

Fengru Lin, Co-Founder and CEO of TurtleTree, is applying precision fermentation technology to produce high-value ingredients for food and beverages without the need for animals. This biotech company's first goal is to expand the production of lactoferrin, a protein found in small quantities in milk that has been shown to promote gut health and immunity. Finding a scalable way to produce lactoferrin will lead to adding this iron-binding element to plant-based milks and energy drinks.   Fengru explains, "A couple of years ago, I was learning how to make cheese as a hobby. It was quite a fanatic period of time. I went up to Vermont from Singapore for a couple of weeks to learn how to make cheese and I wanted to replicate this whole process back in Singapore. But in Singapore, we have no access to cows, we have no access to raw, fresh milk. So, I had to go down to Indonesia and Thailand to look for milk. In this journey, I was exposed to a lot of challenges around the dairy industry, things like contract farmin