Brightseed’s 2025 Year in Review
Significant platform advancements lead to milestone partnerships, clinically validated ingredients, peer-reviewed science, and a bigger stage for AI-powered health
By: Lee Chae, PhD, Co-Founder & CEO & Sofia Elizondo, Co-Founder, President & CCO
In 2025, Brightseed took a meaningful step forward in our mission to illuminate nature’s answers to human health—delivering them in versatile applications the world can use. We doubled down on our AI capabilities, expanding our platform to advance our science and bring market-ready innovation to partners and brands looking for clinically-validated, nature-derived solutions.
This year was defined by one theme: platform-led acceleration from discovery to impact—with proof at every stage.
Milestone partnerships that expand what’s possible
Out of our multiple customers, two collaborations exemplify where Brightseed is headed: expanding the capabilities of our AI-powered health engine with world-class organizations to accelerate the next generation of science-backed solutions.
Haleon: accelerating science-led consumer health innovation
In May, Brightseed and Haleon — the global consumer health company behind trusted brands like Advil, Theraflu and Centrum — announced a strategic collaboration to advance natural, small molecule discovery for human health. Together we focus on leveraging Brightseed’s proprietary, deep science AI, Forager®, to accelerate insights into the natural world and support science-led research and innovation.
This partnership reflects a shared belief: that trusted consumer health solutions should be built on rigorous science—and that AI can dramatically increase the speed and precision with which we uncover nature’s most powerful compounds.
Almond Board of California: expanding decades of research and insights
In July, Brightseed and the Almond Board of California shared results from a collaboration that highlights how much remains undiscovered in everyday foods. Using Forager®, researchers identified 530 phytochemicals in almonds—four times more than previously reported—with six bioactives reported in almonds for the first time.
This work underscores an important reality: the natural world is still rich in “dark matter” — molecules that may benefit people and the planet, but science still hasn’t discovered them, let alone how they may work. With an AI purpose-built for the life sciences and trained on proprietary biological and chemical data, we can now explore that frontier with unprecedented scale — and convert it into insights that guide health science innovations.
Two clinically validated, AI discovered bioactive commercial launches
2025 was also a landmark year as we launched not one, but two market-ready bioactive ingredients, making these the first-ever AI-discovered, clinically-validated bioactive molecules brought to market. The launches also showcase our ability to scale a synbio process that was informed by Forager insights from concept to pilot in one year and bring this to commercial scale in less than 12 months total. With these launches, we are proud to show that AI-driven research and development can go end-to-end, from molecule to market, in record time.
Bio Gut Core™: Strengthening the foundation of gut health
In May, we introduced Bio Gut Core™, a low-dose, ready-to-use gut health ingredient clinically shown to improve gut barrier health and provide relief from bloating and abdominal pain within three weeks. It’s reported that 2 in 3 Americans experience digestive symptoms at least a few times a month, including bloating, discomfort, and symptoms associated with “leaky gut,” which can be uniquely addressed by this ingredient.
Bio Gut Core is built on two proprietary bioactives — NCT and NFT — identified through Forager and validated with statistical significance in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial.
The result: A first-of-its-kind ingredient that unlocks gut barrier integrity that’s designed for real-world product development — without the “gram-level dose” problem that has historically limited gut barrier solutions.
BioMetaControl™: Expanding into metabolic health
In September, we launched BioMetaControl™, our first commercial ingredient designed for metabolic health and positioned as a nature-inspired companion for today’s metabolic health moment.
BioMetaControl contains the same two proprietary bioactives, NCT and NFT, which Forager identified as potent agonists of a receptor called HNF4α—often described as a metabolic “master switch” involved in blood glucose regulation.
In a randomized, double-blind clinical study (n=126), BioMetaControl demonstrated statistically significant improvements in fasting blood glucose and other metabolic markers, including significantly less time spent outside the ideal glucose range, as measured by continuous glucose monitoring, in prediabetic subjects in just 30 days.
Together, Bio Gut Core and BioMetaControl represent something bigger than two product launches: they demonstrate the ability of Brightseed’s platform to find bioactives in nature that would have otherwise remained undiscovered. We proved we can repeatedly deliver proprietary, clinically validated bioactives that address unmet consumer needs — from AI discovery to market-ready solutions.
Peer-reviewed science: Building the evidence base
Brightseed exists to raise the bar for nature-based health — so publishing matters.
This year included multiple peer-reviewed contributions that reinforce our platform approach and the emerging science of bioactives:
- Food Chemistry (2025): comprehensive analysis of California almonds identifying 530 phytochemicals and highlighting bioactives and processing insights.
- Bioactive Compounds in Health and Disease: peer-reviewed evidence referenced in connection with NCT/NFT digestive benefits.
We see publication not as a “nice-to-have,” but as a requirement: science-backed innovation earns trust when it’s transparent, reproducible, and peer-reviewed.
Taking Brightseed’s story to the stages shaping the future of health
2025 also brought more opportunities to share what we’re building—and why it matters—across the global nutrition, microbiome, and health innovation communities.
Our team appeared at major industry stages, contributing to conversations at high-impact forums spanning AI, nutrition science, food innovation, and the microbiome business landscape, including HLTH, Probiota, ASN, IFT FIRST, and the NutraIngredients Healthspan Summit.
What’s next: Scaling discovery, deepening validation, expanding impact
If 2025 was about proving the model, 2026 is about scaling it.
Looking ahead, our focus is clear:
- More AI advancements to our platform capabilities and offerings
- More partnerships that combine world-class scientific ambition with the speed of AI
- More “from discovery to scale” wins—making nature-powered health easier for brands to deliver, and easier for people to trust
Because the ultimate goal isn’t simply discovering what’s in nature.
It’s helping companies use it—responsibly, rigorously, and at scale—to bring impactful health solutions to the world. Looking ahead, expect to see even more advancements in our ability to deliver end-to-end continuous health innovation through our platform and our partners.
