VITAKEY®
How Our Platform Works
Science and technology driven innovation
Building on 48 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 advance the delivery systems for precision delivery. VitaKey’s targeted and time-controlled release technology platform can deliver micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), macronutrients (proteins, amino acids, carbohydrates, lipids), probiotics, prebiotics, nutraceuticals, antioxidants and flavors – enhancing food and beverages and facilitating better nutritional value. The addition of nutrients to foods has long been seen as an approach to improve health and wellness as well as a means of adding value to consumer products. But all too often, the advertised nutrients fail to deliver the desired benefits. In many cases, they have been depleted during processing, manufacturing, storage, or during ingestion and digestion.
Our customized solution for targeted delivery
of nutrition
VitaKey offers a single technique suitable for preserving all nutrients (micronutrients, macronutrients, probiotics, prebiotics, nutraceuticals, antioxidants and flavors) — in combination with other foods — throughout processing, manufacturing, storage, cooking and ingestion and digestion. VitaKey employs a microparticle-based delivery technique — developed by scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology — that protects nutrients from heat, moisture, oxygen, light and chemical interactions. The barrier then only becomes soluble in response to specific physiological or environmental stimuli, releasing the intact nutrients for absorption. VitaKey's transformative platform technologies can be customized for any nutrient, for stability in any environment or any condition, and for precision delivery to anywhere in the body.
Through AI and high-throughput screening, an extensive materials and formulations library is available to customize precision delivery solutions while ensuring stability and delivery, and increasing bioavailability.
Langer Lab Materials Expertise
Pharma Rigor
Quantitatively Driven
AI Analysis
High Throughput Methods
Regulatory Screening
Many Working Formulations
VitaKey technology also offers 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 until they reach the intestine, where they adhere to the mucosal lining, propagate, and colonize.
Protection
- Provides a barrier that protects nutrients until they are absorbed
- Allows easy dispersion in a variety of popular foods and beverages
Stability
- Protects against degradation during processing, manufacturing, storage, cooking, ingestion and digestion
- Prevents interactions with other ingredients and nutrients
Delivery
- Masks taste and odors and other sensory issues
- Precision delivery of nutrients to the mouth, stomach, or intestines
Our technology protects micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), macronutrients (proteins, amino acids, carbohydrates, lipids), probiotics, prebiotics, nutraceuticals, antioxidants and flavors
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)