Category: News

Peoria, IL (May 1, 2023) – The Midwest Bioprocessing Center (MBC) and McKinley Resources are pleased to announce a distribution partnership surrounding MBC’s FeruliShield™ feruloyl glycerides ingredients for cosmetics and personal care applications.  Under the agreement McKinley will be the exclusive distribution partner for FeruliShield™ products in North America.

FeruliShield™ feruloyl glycerides are part of MBC’s iActive™ brand of scientifically developed natural personal care ingredients – designed to deliver straightforward and technically validated products to B2B customers. Feruloyl Glycerides combine the photoprotective and antioxidant properties of ferulic acid with the formulation advantages of natural oils and can provide a powerful SPF-boost to sunscreen products.

McKinley Resources is a leading supplier of skin care, hair care, and over-the-counter active ingredients to the industry.

John Oliver, President of McKinley Resources stated,“The McKinley-MBC partnership is a befitting combination that comes at a critical time for suncare-related ingredients. We are excited to showcase MBC’s innovative ingredients to the personal care and cosmetic industry.”

“MBC is extremely excited to be partnering with McKinley,” said Dr. David Demirjian, President of MBC.  “McKinley’s well-established industry presence will help broadly target our new FeruliShield™ products to the industry.”

McKinley Resources and the Midwest Bioprocessing Center will both be in attendance at the New York Society of Cosmetic Chemist’s Supplier’s Day event on May 2^nd and 3^rd.  They are available at the McKinley booth (#646) and a presentation on the feruloyl glycerides is scheduled at the Innovation Showcase at 11:20am on Tuesday, May 2^nd.

About the Midwest Bioprocessing Center, LLC.

The Midwest Bioprocessing Center is a biotechnology company dedicated to bringing important new sustainable, bio-based technologies to market for human health and nutrition.  The Company’s proprietary enzyme and fermentation technology platform allows production and modification of new lipids, carbohydrates, and active ingredients that would otherwise be impractical or impossible to make.  MBC’s proprietary brands include the iActive™ FeruliShield™ feruloyl glycerides for Personal Care and zuCarb™ Rare sugar platform for pharmaceutical R&D.  The Midwest Bioprocessing Center is located in Peoria, IL and housed in the PeoriaNEXT Innovation Center.

For more information please contact:
Elena Chaikin, Marketing Manager.
products@mwbioprocessing.com

801 W Main St
Peoria, IL 61606

About McKinley Resources, Inc.

McKinley Resources specializes in the distribution of skin care-, hair care- and over-the-counter active ingredients, natural exfoliants, and cosmetic specialty chemicals. McKinley focuses on providing solutions for anti-aging, anti-inflammation, anti-acne, anti-oxidant and skin lightening formulations with claim substantiation. We source materials from all over the world and use our experience and supplier relationships to bring you a premium selection of ingredients – whether they be new and innovative ingredients that keep you at the forefront of the latest trends, tried and trusted effective functionals, or hard-to-find specialties. We strive to be a one-stop source that provides customers with superior service, high-quality products, supporting technical information, and valuable insight on product application. Our goal is to partner with you for your raw material needs and help you to achieve your goals.

For more information, please contact us at info@mckinleyresources.com

Join our President and Co-founder Dr. David Demirjian on November 7th as he moderates a session on “Enzyme and Cell-free Technologies for Production of Sustainable Chemicals” at this year’s AFCC meeting.

Dr. Demirjian will be joined by a panel of experts to discuss the production and scale-up of biocatalysts and cell-free production systems, approaches to development, and government funding programs:

William Armiger, President, SynAppBio
Ken Barrett, Chief Business Officer, Arzeda
David Babson, Program Director, ECOSynBio, ARPA-e
Elizabeth Onderko, CEO, Capra Biosciences
Eric Steen, CEO & Co-founder. Lygos

Learn more about the session

Learn about AFCC

Midwest Bioprocessing Center is proud to announce that our iActive cosmetic ingredients are now listed on Knowde. Knowde is the leading marketplace for chemicals, polymers and ingredients. 

FeruliShield™ feruloyl glycerides are natural personal care ingredients that don’t compromise performance. FeruliShield is a modified ferulic acid that offers a variety of formulation benefits that will help set your products apart in the saturated beauty industry:

✅ Strongly absorbs UV A & B
✅ Rapid antioxidant
✅ Protection of other active ingredients
✅ SPF Booster
✅ USDA Biobased Certified

FeruliShield™ can be added into many types of products, such as skincare (cleansers, serums, creams and lotions); sunscreens, of course; hair care (shampoos, conditioners, leave-in treatments, and masks); and even cosmetics (foundations, primers, settings sprays, etc.); allowing all of these potential products to shield you from the sun damage.

Media Contacts:

Elena Chaikin, Marketing Manager
echaikin@mwbioprocessing.com

Peoria, IL (June 16, 2022) – The Midwest Bioprocessing Center (MBC), a leading producer of bio-based chemicals for human health and nutrition, announced that it has been awarded a $217,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop new technology to produce important deoxysugars for pharmaceutical drug discovery applications.

These specialized sugars are often important structural components of bioactive natural products, such as antibiotics and anticancer therapeutics.  Although they are of increasing interest to drug discovery researchers who want to test the effect of altering sugar substituents on the therapeutics that they are developing, deoxysugars are often difficult or impossible to synthesize using current chemical technologies.

“Our goal in this project is to support researchers that are working on the development of new therapeutics by allowing them to test the effects of different deoxysugars they can’t currently make or buy,” said Dr. Robert Turner, Principal Investigator on the Project. “We think that these important molecules can have a profound effect on developing new anti-infective and anticancer therapeutics.”

The Company plans on selling the resulting deoxysugars as part of its zuCarb™ line of rare and modified sugars for research applications.  In addition to selling products from its growing catalog, MBC also synthesizes custom chemicals and carries out collaborative research using its proprietary technology platform.

Visit the Company’s website to learn about the Midwest Bioprocessing Center www.mwbioprocessing.com or its zuCarb™ line of rare sugars (www.mwbioprocessing.com/zuCarb).  Inquiries can be sent to products@mwbioprocessing.com.

About the Midwest Bioprocessing Center, LLC.

The Midwest Bioprocessing Center is a start-up biotechnology company formed in 2019 to bring important new bio-based technologies to market for human health and nutrition.  The Midwest Bioprocessing Center has facilities to carry out enzyme biocatalysis, fermentation, chemical synthesis, and product purification for its own use and on behalf of its clients.  MBC’s proprietary brands include the zuCarb™ Rare sugar platform, the ThermoCat™ stable biocatalysts, and the iActive FeruliShield™ Feruloyl Glycerides for Personal Care.  The Company’s proprietary enzyme and fermentation technology platform allows production and modification of carbohydrates, glycochemicals, and lipids that would otherwise be impractical or impossible to make.  The Midwest Bioprocessing Center is located in Peoria, IL and housed in the PeoriaNEXT Innovation Center.  For more information please contact:

products@mwbioprocessing.com

801 W Main St

Peoria, IL 61606

Tel: (630) 230-0349

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Media Contacts: 

Midwest Bioprocessing Center, LLC
Breanne Mason
bmason@mwbioprocessing.com

USDA BioPreferred® Program 
Vernell Thompson 202.720.4145
vernell.thompson@dm.usda.gov

Peoria, IL. (March 1, 2022) — Midwest Bioprocessing Center, LLC announced today that it has earned the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Certified Biobased Product label for two of its iActive Personal Care ingredients. The products, iActive FeruliShield™ Feruloyl Soy Glycerides (FSG-33), and Feruloyl Coconut Glycerides, (FCG-33) and are now able to display a unique USDA label that highlights its percentage of biobased content.

Third-party verification for a product’s biobased content is administered through the USDA BioPreferred Program, an initiative created by the 2002 Farm Bill (and recently reauthorized by the 2018 Farm Bill). One of the goals of the BioPreferred Program is to increase the development, purchase and use of biobased products.

The USDA Certified Biobased Product label displays a product’s biobased content, which is the portion of a product that comes from a renewable source, such as plant, animal, marine, or forestry feedstocks. Utilizing renewable, biobased materials displaces the need for non-renewable petroleum-based chemicals. Biobased products, through petroleum displacement, have played an increasingly important role in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that exacerbate global climate change.

Biobased products are cost-comparative, readily available, and perform as well as or better than their conventional counterparts.

“We are excited to have received certification for our iActive ™ products by the USDA BioPreferred Program,” said David Demirjian, Manager and Cofounder of the Midwest Bioprocessing Center.  “The certification helps underscore our commitment to providing sustainable, bio-based products for Personal Care applications.”

“We applaud Midwest Bioprocessing Center, LLC for earning the USDA Certified Biobased Product label,” said Vernell Thompson, USDA BioPreferred Program. “Products from Midwest Bioprocessing Center, LLC are contributing to an ever-expanding marketplace that adds value to renewable agriculture commodities, creates jobs in rural communities, and decreases our reliance on petroleum.”

According to a report that USDA released in July 2019, biobased products contributed $459 billion to the U.S. economy in 2016 (a 17% increase from 2014) and support, directly and indirectly, 4.6 million jobs. The report’s research team estimates the reduction of fossil fuels and associated GHG emissions from biobased products equivalent to approximately 12 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) prevented as of 2016. The increased production of renewable chemicals and biobased products contributes to the development and expansion of the U.S. bioeconomy – where society looks to agriculture for sustainable sources of fuel, energy, chemicals, and products.

About Midwest Bioprocessing Center, LLC:
The Midwest Bioprocessing Center is a start-up biotechnology company formed in 2019 to bring important new sustainable bio-based technologies to market for human health and nutrition.  MBC’s proprietary brands include the zuCarb™ Rare sugar platform, the ThermoCat™ stable biocatalysts, and the iActive FeruliShield™ Feruloyl Glycerides for Personal Care.  The Company’s proprietary enzyme and fermentation technology platform allows production and modification of carbohydrates, glycochemicals, and lipids that would otherwise be impractical or impossible to make.  The Midwest Bioprocessing Center is located in Peoria, IL and housed in the PeoriaNEXT Innovation Center. The Midwest Bioprocessing Center has facilities to carry out enzyme biocatalysts, fermentation, chemical synthesis, and product purification. For more information on MBC products and services please contacts:  products@mwbioprocessing.com.  Visit our website at www.mwbioprocessing.com.

About the USDA BioPreferred Program and Certified Biobased Product label
The BioPreferred Program is a USDA-led initiative that assists the development and expansion of markets for biobased products. The BioPreferred Program is transforming the marketplace for biobased products through two initiatives: mandatory purchasing requirements for Federal Agencies and Federal contractors and voluntary product certification and labeling.

Biobased products span a diverse range of applications, such as lubricants, cleaning products, chemicals and bioplastics. The USDA Certified Biobased Product label communicates a product’s biobased content. Expressed as a percentage, biobased content is the ratio of non-fossil organic carbon (new organic carbon) to total organic carbon in a product. New organic carbon is derived from recently-created materials. The total organic carbon in a product consists of new organic carbon and old organic carbon that originates from fossil carbon materials, such as petroleum, coal, or natural gas. More than 3,500 products have earned the USDA Certified Biobased Product label. To learn more about the USDA Certified Biobased Product label please visit www.biopreferred.gov, and follow on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BioPreferred.

Peoria, IL (January 20, 2022) – The Midwest Bioprocessing Center (MBC), a leading producer of bio-based chemicals for human health and nutrition, announced that it has been award a $1.87MM grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a variety of new monosaccharides, oligosaccharides, and glycans needed for the study of viral glycobiology and development of new antiviral drugs.

Glycobiology, the study of how complex and unusual sugars interact with our body, is important in a number of ways for viral research. Viral spike proteins which bind to our cells are often heavily glycosylated to both avoid recognition by the immune system or to interact with host receptors.   The host receptor proteins are frequently glycosylated as well.

In support of advancements in this important field of research MBC will be making monosaccharides sugars, nucleoside sugars, oligosaccharides, and other glycans developed during the project available for use by outside investigators during the project.

“This technology will support researchers studying viral pathology, analyses of viral binding and interactions with hosts, studies to develop novel antiviral therapeutics and vaccines, and others.”, said Dr. Leila Aminova, Principal Investigator on the Project.

To learn about other products from MBC such as its zuCarb™ line of rare sugars please visit www.mwbioprocessing.com or email products@mwbioprocessing.com.

About the Midwest Bioprocessing Center, LLC.

The Midwest Bioprocessing Center is a start-up biotechnology company formed in 2019 to bring important new bio-based technologies to market for human health and nutrition.  MBC’s proprietary brands include the zuCarb™ Rare sugar platform, the ThermoCat™ stable biocatalysts, and the iActive FeruliShield™ Feruloyl Glycerides for Personal Care.  The Company’s proprietary enzyme and fermentation technology platform allows production and modification of carbohydrates, glycochemicals, and lipids that would otherwise be impractical or impossible to make.  The Midwest Bioprocessing Center is located in Peoria, IL and housed in the PeoriaNEXT Innovation Center. The Midwest Bioprocessing Center has facilities to carry out enzyme biocatalysts, fermentation, chemical synthesis, and product purification. For more information please contact:

products@mwbioprocessing.com

801 W Main St

Peoria, IL 61606

Tel: (630) 230-0349

END