By Business & Finance 
Nuritas, an Irish biotechnology company, has won the 2015 SVG Thrive Accelerator Award at the Forbes Reinventing America Ag Tech Summit in Salinas, California.
Nuritas was selected as one of the top 10 finalists before the summit and emerged the winner. Over 100 entries submitted from companies around the world were reviewed as part of a competition that was focused on precision agriculture and food solutions. The competition aimed to help solve the food and wellness challenges of the 21st century. To date, Nuritas has developed and patented food components that can help address challenges as broad as diabetes, anti-ageing and MRSA, amongst others.
Combining pure maths with biology, Nuritas uses revolutionary big data systems and bioinformatics to mine food for components – known as peptides – which can be used in life science industries, including functional foods, supplements, personal care, medical foods and pharmaceuticals. Nuritas finds these peptides 10 times faster than conventional research means, with 380 times more predictability of therapeutic discovery and for one thousandth of the cost.
In just 12 months, Nuritas has discovered 20 novel peptides, all of which are seen to have exceptional efficacy with many more in the pipeline. Of these 20 peptides, two have been developed and patented by Nuritas which regulate blood glucose levels. In the future, Nuritas plans to target the prevention and onset of diabetes and also complement its treatment. Patents have also been filed for peptides that have anti-ageing properties and can be applied in cosmetics and personal care products.
There are estimated to be less than three dozen health-benefiting peptides commercially available globally – indicating scale of the company’s achievement to date.
Speaking at the presentation of the award in California, company founder Dr. Nora Khaldi said: “I am honoured that Nuritas has been recognised by Forbes for our innovative use of technology to discover key ingredients for healthy living. I passionately believe in the potential of food to offer solutions to health and wellness challenges but, until now, this potential was out of reach. Now, Nuritas is able to unlock nature’s hidden, health-benefiting ingredients that can work with the body to enhance well-being. As a company, we are extremely proud of the global importance of our work and this award is a very welcome endorsement of our values and mission.”
Steve Forbes, chairman and editor-in-chief, Forbes Media, added: “Forbes has partnered with the Thrive Accelerator Award as a means to highlight and showcase groundbreaking ideas that are meeting the food challenges of the 21st century. We congratulate Nuritas on this award for its use of an innovative and sustainable technology that discovers and unlocks health-benefiting food components for global well-being. We are enthusiastic about this company’s technology and excited to watch its progress.”
Nuritas CEO Emmet Browne commented “Nuritas is revolutionising global health and well-being and is creating opportunities in life sciences that were inconceivable even a decade ago. Before Nuritas, technology and data had never been applied to find, identify and validate life-changing peptides in food in such a reliable and accurate way. This Forbes Reinventing America Ag Tech award recognises the radical change our technology is bringing.”
