VITAKEY®
How Precision Delivery Works
Science and technology driven innovation
Building on 50 years of experience and achievements in pharmaceutical delivery systems, Dr. Robert S. Langer, Institute Professor and director of the Langer Lab at MIT, co-founded VitaKey to apply these delivery systems to the nutrients in the foods and beverages we consume every day. VitaKey’s targeted and time-controlled release technology platform, which uses all natural materials/ingredients, can deliver probiotics, prebiotics, macronutrients (proteins, amino acids, carbohydrates, lipids), bioactives, antioxidants, nutraceuticals, micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) and flavors — enhancing food and beverages by increasing nutrient stability and density. Adding nutrients to foods has long been seen as not only a way to improve health and wellness but also a means of adding value to consumer products. However, the current advertised nutrients often fail to deliver the desired benefits. In many cases, they have been degraded during processing, manufacturing, storage, or during ingestion and digestion.
Our customized solution for the precision delivery of nutrition
VitaKey’s platforms can be customized to stabilize all nutrients (probiotics, prebiotics, macronutrients, bioactives, antioxidants, nutraceuticals, micronutrients, and flavors) against environmental and physiological factors — including, processing, manufacturing, storage, cooking and ingestion and digestion — and are compatible with a variety of end-products (food, beverages, powders, capsules, animal feed and fertilizer). Based on research by scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, VitaKey employs micro-and nano-particle-based delivery techniques that protect nutrients from heat, moisture, oxygen, light and chemical interactions. This barrier then only becomes soluble in response to specific physiological or environmental stimuli, releasing the intact nutrients for absorption at a specific location within the digestive tract. VitaKey's transformative platform technology can be customized for stability of any nutrient in any environment or any condition, and for precision delivery to anywhere in the body.
Through AI and high-throughput analysis, an extensive materials and formulations library is used to customize precision delivery solutions while ensuring end product compatibility and increasing bioavailability.
Langer Lab Materials Expertise
Pharma Rigor
Quantitatively Driven
AI Analysis
High Throughput Methods
Regulatory Screening
Many Working Formulations
One application of VitaKey technology is enabling new possibilities for improving the microbial environment of the human digestive tract — the microbiome. Of the trillions of bacteria present in the human digestive tract, many serve positive functions in the digestion of food and in suppressing harmful pathogens. Imbalances in the microbiome not only play a role in gastrointestinal ailments such as colitis and Crohn’s disease, but in diabetes, heart, disease and cancer. Over-the-counter probiotic supplements — recommended for intestinal health — are also susceptible to deterioration in storage and may be neutralized by stomach acid before they ever reach the intestine. VitaKey’s targeted and time-controlled release precision delivery technology protects desirable microbes from the acids and bile salts of the stomach — with >10M x higher survivability compared to non-VitaKey probiotics — until they reach the intestine, where they adhere to the mucosal lining, propagate, and colonize.
Protection
- Maintains a nutrient specific barrier that protects nutrients until they reach the desired place in the GI tract
- Provides a nutrient specific barrier that protect against environmental factors including heat, light, oxygen, and moisture
- Allows easy integration and dispersion in a variety of popular foods and beverages, with no change to the taste, texture, or color of the end product
Stability
- Protects against degradation during processing, manufacturing, storage, cooking, ingestion and digestion
- Prevents interactions with other ingredients and nutrients
Delivery
- Precision delivery of nutrients to the right place in the body, at the right time, over the desired time period for optimal bioavailability, absorption and efficacy
- Enables time-controlled and extended release of nutrients for sustained nutrition
VitaKey is more than an ingredient or encapsulation company — our Precision Delivery technology are customizable platforms that can be tuned to stabilize nutrients against any environmental and physiological challenges to ensure delivery and absorption to the ideal place in the body.
Targeted and time-controlled
release of all micronutrients
As an example of VitaKey’s platforms, micronutrients can be precision delivered by using a one-step or two-step encapsulation process
Micronutrient
Final product
Clinically-validated percent cumulative release
Four co-encapsulated micronutrients, B12, A and D in 37°C SGF, RT water, and boiling water
Precision delivery® technology protects nutrients from heat, light, and chemical reactions
Recovery of encapsulated vs. unencapsulated (“free”) micronutrient
- Encapsulated VitA
- Free VitA
- Encapsulated VitD
- Free VitD
- Encapsulated VitC
- Free VitC
- Encapsulated VitB2
- Free VitB2
- Encapsulated VitA
- Free VitA
- Encapsulated VitD
- Free VitD
- Co-encapsulated VitB 12
- Co-encapsulated folic acid
- Co-encapsulated VitA
- Co-encapsulated VitD
of Iron Oxidation
- Encapsulated Fe
- Free Fe
Technology validated for delivery of probiotics
to ex-vivo Porcine Intestinal Tissue
[p/s]/[µW/cm2]x108
- Plain
- LbL-(CHI/ALG)2
to ex-vivo Porcine Intestinal Tissue
- Plain
- LbL-(CHI/ALG)2
to Intestinal Tissue
Over Background
- Plain
- LbL-(CHI/ALG)2
- Control
- 4% Bile (1 Hr)
- 4% Bile (30 Min)
- 4% Bile (2 Hr)
BC in Gastric Fluid (SGF) and Bile Salt Solutions
- Plain
- LbL-(CHI)1
- LbL-(CHI/ALG)1
- LbL-(CHI/L100)1
- LbL-(CHI/L100)2
- LbL-(CHI/ALG)2
- Control
- SGF (1 Hr)
- SGF (30 Min)
- SGF (2 Hr)
VitaKey has developed a platform technology for probiotics that completely protects beneficial bacteria until they reach their intended destination. Paired layers of the biodegradable polysaccharides chitosan and alginate shield the probiotics from acids in the stomach and from bile salts in the intestine. The layer by layer coating adheres to the mucosal lining of the intestine for hours, allowing useful bacteria to propagate in the intestine. Further work with the layer by layer technology offers the possibility of still more precise targeting and delivery of probiotics to specific areas of the body.
- BC
- BC-(CHI)
- BC-(CHI/ALG)
- BC-(CHI/ALG)1.5
- BC-(CHI/ALG)2
- pH 1.5
- pH 7
- Chitosan
- Alginate
- Plain
- 2 Bilayer of (CHI/ALG)
- 1 Bilayer of (CHI/ALG)
- 3 Bilayer of (CHI/ALG)