Zenobio Technologies Files for IPO Amid Plans to Scale HMO Production to 200 Tons Annually

The synthetic biology sector has attracted significant attention from capital markets both domestically and internationally in recent years, ushering in a new phase of development. In 2021, five synthetic biology companies went public globally, while innovative enterprises such as Cathay Biotech and Bluepha emerged in China.

Synthetic biology holds broad application prospects across numerous fields, including healthcare, agriculture, food, and chemical engineering. In recent years, human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) have gradually emerged as a prominent area within this domain. The five major global HMOs producers—DuPont, BASF, DSM, Jennewein, and FrieslandCampina—currently employ traditional strains or conventional genetic engineering methods for HMO synthesis. Meanwhile, fast-moving consumer goods giants in the food sector, such as Nestlé, Danone, and Yili, are entering this field through various investments and collaborations.

Domestic companies have also identified the significant business opportunities in the HMO sector and are beginning to enter the market.

Beijing Zeno Technology Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Zeno Tech”), founded in 2020, is an innovative technology company dedicated to leveraging synthetic biology and fermentation engineering to develop high-value-added natural products, with a focus on human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) and novel microbial pigments. It is reported that Zeno Tech has completed the R&D of its second-generation strains. Currently, its HMO product pipeline has a production capacity of approximately 10 tons, and it is estimated that a production line with a capacity of 200 tons will be established by the end of this year.

Dr. Zhu Tianze, the founder of Zeno Technology, has approximately ten years of research experience in the field of synthetic biology.In 2012, Zhu Tianze earned his bachelor’s degree from the School of Life Sciences at Peking University. During his undergraduate studies, his research focused on developing a gold ion biosensor using engineered Escherichia coli based on synthetic biology techniques. He subsequently pursued his Ph.D. at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, where his research primarily centered on carbohydrate chemistry and biocatalysis. Additionally, Zhu participated in a major project funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) on biocatalysis based on cofactor regeneration, developing a series of foundational technological platforms for the biosynthesis of terpenoids.

While still studying at Oxford, Zhu Tianze witnessed his doctoral supervisor establish a synthetic biology company, which made him realize the market potential and new pathways for his future career development. Coupled with his participation in exchange and inspection activities focused on returning to China to start businesses, where he learned about the supportive stance of local policies in China, the idea of entrepreneurship gradually took root.

However, due to his long-term studies abroad, he had limited understanding of the domestic landscape. Therefore, to accumulate entrepreneurial experience and industry resources, Zhu Tianze joined a synthetic biology startup upon returning to China in 2018, where he was responsible for market expansion.and was named to the Forbes China 30 Under 30 list in 2019.

Leveraging his expertise and accumulated experience in synthetic biology, along with his insights into industry trends and policies, Zhu Tianze felt that the timing was ripe for entrepreneurship after two years of professional development. However, he still faced the challenge of product selection.

Although synthetic biology has a wide range of application scenarios, selecting the wrong product often leads to longer R&D cycles, shorter market lifecycles, and greater economic losses. Therefore, choosing the right product category is crucial for enterprises.

After extensive research, Zhu Tianze set his sights on HM0s and founded Zeno Tech in 2020.Why Choose HMOs? Zhu Tianze stated that the decision was primarily based on the following considerations:

“Commodities require large-scale mass production. Even if startups achieve technological leadership, large enterprises can decisively outperform them by leveraging their advantages in industry resources, sales channels, and economies of scale. Therefore, ‘generally speaking, non-commodity, high-value-added products are more suitable for startups,’ explained Zhu Tianze.”

Breast milk is the ideal food for infants aged 0–6 months, providing all the fluids, energy, and nutrients they require. As the “gold standard” for infant feeding, it serves as the ultimate benchmark that infant formula manufacturers strive to approach ever more closely through continuous product iteration and upgrading.

As scientific research continues to advance, the mysteries of breast milk composition are gradually being unraveled, and the value of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) is becoming increasingly well-known. HMOs are the third most abundant solid component in human milk, after lactose and fat. They offer multiple benefits, including promoting intestinal microecological balance in infants, stimulating the proliferation of beneficial gut bacteria, inhibiting the growth of harmful bacteria, preventing the colonization of pathogenic bacteria, modulating the immune system, and supporting cognitive development. Consequently, market demand for infant formula containing HMOs has experienced robust growth, gradually making it the preferred choice for mothers.

Therefore, high-value-added HMOs represented an excellent choice for Zenotech, which was then in its early stages.

Compared with other production pathways, the use of synthetic biology technology to produce HMOs offers the greatest advantages.

HMO production technologies can be categorized into three types: natural extraction, chemical synthesis, and microbial synthesis. Due to the extremely low abundance of HMOs in nature, natural extraction entails prohibitively high costs, making industrial-scale production impractical. Chemical synthesis is constrained by limited market applicability and modest growth prospects, owing to its low efficiency, complex processes, and potential food safety concerns. In contrast, microbial synthesis using engineered strains such as Escherichia coli and yeast has emerged as the most dynamic area in current commercial HMO production, driven by advantages including lower production costs and reduced environmental impact.

In early 2021, the National Health Commission (NHC) opened a channel for the declaration and approval of “other genetically modified food additives,” allowing the acceptance of administrative licensing applications for new varieties of genetically modified microbial food additives. Prior to this, the NHC only accepted administrative licensing applications for new varieties of genetically modified enzyme preparations. This represents a significant advancement in the regulatory direction for genetically modified food additives, marking that enterprises can now submit products of food additives or enzyme preparations produced or prepared using genetic modification technology.

2’-Fucosyllactose (2’-FL) is the most abundant component among human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) and received regulatory approval in the United States and European markets many years ago. Abbott and Nestlé/Wyeth launched infant formula products containing 2’-FL in 2016 and 2017, respectively, becoming the first two multinational corporations to market infant formulas with HMO ingredients.

However, HMOs, including 2’-FL, have not yet been approved as additives by the relevant domestic authorities in China. Consequently, the application of HMOs in China remains nonexistent, although the policy landscape is gradually improving.

In October 2021, the China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment (CFSA) completed its review of the safety and necessity of 2’-FL and began soliciting public comments on the application to expand its scope of use, marking the imminent large-scale application of HMOs. In the second half of 2021, the National Health Commission accepted three applications for 2’-FL as new varieties of food additives; all three products are currently in the process of submitting supplementary documentation.

“Although domestic policies in China have not yet been liberalized, Dr. Zhu Tianze views this as a positive development. ‘Foreign companies have been active in the HMOs sector for many years, and their technologies are undoubtedly more mature than those of Chinese enterprises. If the market were opened now, the domestic market would likely be dominated directly by foreign firms. This window period, instead, provides us with the time and opportunity to accumulate experience, rapidly enhance our technology and product quality, and catch up with international competitors,’ explained Dr. Zhu.”

Meanwhile, he believes that policy liberalization is only a matter of time, and he anticipates that the Chinese government may permit the use of HMOs as food additives in the fourth quarter of this year.

Zeno Technology has established its presence at the Peking University Molecular Engineering (Suzhou) Research Institute in Southern Jiangsu, leveraging Peking University’s robust R&D capabilities to advance multiple development pipelines. Meanwhile, Zeno Technology has been recognized as a “Kuncheng Talent” Leading Enterprise by Suzhou and secured millions of yuan in financial support from local government authorities.

Numerous companies worldwide have established a presence in the HMOs sector, while innovative enterprises such as Yixi Biotech and Henglu Biotech have emerged in China, contributing to the industry’s overall prosperity. Compared with other players, Zenotech possesses distinct advantages and a differentiated strategic layout.

High-yield, stable HMO strains demand significant time and technical expertise. Zeno Technology began its strategic investment in this field in early 2020 and, after approximately two years of accumulation, has completed the entire process from strain construction to the development of second-generation strains.

Zenotech leverages metabolic pathway design in combination with next-generation gene editing technologies to perform targeted genetic engineering of chassis microorganisms such as Escherichia coli and yeast. The company has established a high-throughput screening platform to enable the selection of industrial-grade, stable, and high-yield strains through large-scale iterative screening.The production efficiency of the obtained engineered bacterial strains was 30–40% higher than that of traditional strains.

Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are carbohydrates that are highly soluble in water, making their extraction extremely challenging. Each one-percentage-point increase in purity entails higher costs. For synthetic biology companies, a major challenge lies in achieving separation and purification at the lowest possible cost while ensuring the complete removal of toxic substances such as contaminating microbes, heavy metals, and allergenic proteins, thereby guaranteeing the quality of the final product.

“By optimizing separation and purification technologies through the use of domestically produced culture media, we have achieved a balance between cost and purity, minimizing separation and purification costs while ensuring purification accuracy,” introduced Dr. Zhu Tianze.

In a narrow sense, synthetic biology focuses more on the engineering design of chassis microorganisms to obtain high-yield and stable strains. However, to develop mature and commercially viable products, downstream processes such as fermentation, scale-up, and separation and purification must be comprehensively considered. Moreover, the entire production system exhibits a pronounced "bucket effect," where any weakness in detail can lead to the failure of the entire project.

Therefore, Zeno Technology has recruited R&D personnel with extensive experience in industrialization, including fermentation engineers with over ten years of experience at publicly listed companies. Meanwhile, the company places significant emphasis on collaborations with universities, leveraging their extensive expertise in large-scale and industrialized production—such as that of Beijing University of Chemical Technology—to facilitate product commercialization.

“We can now guarantee a fermentation yield of over 100 g per liter.”.” ZhuTianze stated that Zeno Technology currently has a production capacity of approximately 10 tons across multiple product pipelines, and it is estimated that the construction of a production line with a capacity of 200 tons will be completed by the end of this year.

In terms of commercialization, taking into account the policy differences between China and other countries, Zeno Technology currently mainly cooperates with new consumer enterprises in cross-border e-commerce to supply HMOs to foreign functional food companies.Meanwhile, Zenotech is actively expanding its presence in infant formula, health supplements and functional foods, and foods for special medical purposes., by advancing collaborations with leading enterprises across various sectors, to prepare for the large-scale application of HMOs in China following their subsequent domestic approval.

A major advantage of synthetic biology lies in its engineering-oriented technical features, which can be leveraged across multiple product pipelines, thereby saving on R&D costs in terms of both capital and time. In addition to the relatively mature HMOs, Zenotech is actively developing other product pipelines, such asNatural Microbe-Based Pigments for Textile Printing and Dyeing. Traditional pigments are mostly produced through chemical methods, which often have the disadvantages of high energy consumption, high carbon emissions, and high pollution. Zeno Tech's microbe-based natural dyes, produced using synthetic biology methods, not only overcome these drawbacks but also offer unique advantages such as strong biocompatibility.

Leveraging the aforementioned advantages,Zeno Tech completed an angel round of financing exceeding RMB 10 million in 2021 and is currently planning a new pre-A funding round.

Regarding future plans, Zhu Tianze stated, “We aim to achieve a leading position in the field of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), leverage our successful industrialization experience to expand into more application areas, and realize a multi-dimensional product portfolio.”