Human oligosaccharides (HMOs) are complex carbohydrates made up of short chains of monosaccharide units (sugars) found naturally in human breast milk. These oligosaccharides support a variety of essential biological functions, including promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria in the infant gut, protecting against harmful bacteria that can cause infections, promoting the development of the immune system, and redicing inflammation.

HMOs are complex molecules that are difficult and expensive to produce using chemical synthesis. To date, only a handful of HMOs can be produced through microbial fermentation, while the production of most HMOs is hindered due to their relatively large molecular size and structures.

Enzymit cell-free production platform holds major advantages over chemical and fermentation-based production of HMOs:

• Enzymes can be reused and work at higher temperatures and pressures, resulting in faster production times and higher yields.
• Specific enzymes can selectively break down the starting materials into the desired HMOs, without producing unwanted by-products, reducing the need for costly purification steps.
• Enzymatic production has a lower environmental impact than fermentation by using renewable resources that produce less waste and require less energy for growth and maintenance
• The large molecular size of HMOs is often too big to be secreted from fermenting microbes causing yield loss and requiring expensive downstream purification, while enzymatic production is not restricted by the molecule size.