Changing What Society Considers Medicine: One Phytonutrient At A Time

BIO: Dr. Jim Flatt is a Biosciences leader, leading teams responsible for conceiving and translating innovative discoveries into successful commercial products in the nutrition, specialty chemical, and energy industries. Jim currently is co-founder and CEO of Brightseed, which is making proactive health more accessible through the discovery and development natural product solutions for food, healthcare and agriculture industries through Forager, a powerful AI-powered and system biology-informed technology platform. Previously, Jim held senior R&D leadership positions at Synthetic Genomics, Martek Biosciences, Mascoma and Hampton Creek. Jim received his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and graduate degrees in Chemical Engineering from UC-Berkeley and University of Wisconsin.

Paige Min (BT): I saw that you originally did work on protein replacements with Hampton creek and I was curious how you branched out from that and became passionate about exploring the potency of plant bioactivity?

Jim Flatt (JF): Before I did work in proteins, I think one of the most significant accomplishments and one of the most fulfilling things that I had done was being involved, in the early 1990s, in research on the benefits and ways to produce bioactive lipids. In this case, the Omega three in particular, which is the primary brain lipid and is responsible for proper function of the number of the proteins in the neuronal tissues, is so important for brain and eye development. Ultimately, that led me to head up R&D for Market Biosciences, a kind of pioneer in that field, and we brought those products to the market and produced them in a more sustainable way as well. And so, to me, having a positive impact – in that case, for many infants, toddlers, children, and adults – was something that I believed in very strongly. So, while we did, as well, have some success bringing a couple new products to market, prior to founding Brightseed in the alternative protein, this has really always been a first love around health and the belief that going forward we needed to approach as a society how we think about health differently. 

In this case, to a great extent at least in Western societies, we've tended to think that food is nourishment and health is only something you think about when you're sick or diseased. So it's given rise to what some call a sick-care based system. Yet, there's a growing body of scientific data that just shows what, in a way, people have known for many, many generations, that our diet has a huge impact on our health and is really key to living a longer, healthier life. So that's what we wanted to pursue with our goal to help us transition to a more proactive health care system or a way to really help people live longer, healthier lives, but in a way that is affordable. And so, that's why we founded Brightseed four years ago.

BT: Yeah, I did see that we really don’t know much – only about 1% – which was pretty crazy to me because it feels like we haven't focused as much on that aspect of plants. We focus more on technology in medicine. And to see that the Forager is analyzing thousands of compounds… How can we put that into perspective? Just what would that mean for the potential future of health and medicine?

JF: Nature generally has been the inspiration for the majority of small molecule drugs that exist and if you look in nature, plants are considered to be nature's foremost chemists. They actually have a capacity to produce a really broad range of compounds, much, much more sophisticated than you or I, and – with that – the hundred thousand compounds that we know have actually yielded a number of important products. And I think by some estimates, between $400 and $700 billion are attributed in value each year to those hundred thousand compounds we know. If just those hundred thousand compounds have been that valuable, imagine what's in all of the unexplored areas of plants. That's what we see. Through our work right now, we have mapped over 1 million compounds, which is about 12 times what the world knows, and we've made a set of important discoveries in metabolic health, gut health, and in cognitive function. We work now with partners across agriculture, food, and even consumer and healthcare to help them innovate their products and create new, truly effective, but also natural-based products that we think most people are looking for. So again, I go back to the mining exercise: we know that this is a really productive space and, if you think about it, it’s like there's a vein of gold. Brightseed has the map to what the rest of the gold mine looks like and how we can harness what nature has given us to help improve our health.

BT: I guess, considering that, we use so many products containing phytonutrients without really knowing all about them. If we were to really start utilizing that information as we keep learning more, how do you think that would change the general public's daily lives, such as how we eat and how we think about health?

JF: I think at the simplest level – and this is something I do when we have guests who come to Brightseed to learn what we're doing – great hosts and hostesses will oftentimes bring out, kind of a bowl of berries, really bright, fresh, wonderful looking berries, and also we have gotten to know a really fine French bakery that makes some of the best croissants in the country. We will actually put those two in front of them and say, “So, what, if you were working to improve your health, do you think it's more important: to eat fewer croissants or eat more of these berries?” And, most people, because that's what they've been taught, will say we should eat fewer of the croissants, and while you definitely shouldn't overindulge on them, it's actually much more important to eat more of the good stuff. And I would say that's the way, I think, we can change behaviors: by sort of illuminating the goodness in what's in our current whole foods and minimally processed foods that retain a lot of the good stuff. 

At the end of the day, if everyone just made an effort to incorporate more of that in their diet or to consume processed foods that are fortified with some of these phytonutrients and bioactive compounds, that would probably do more for health than anything else we could do. That's the change that I could see. You always think if the whole population were 10% better, think how much impact that could have. So you're not looking necessarily for radical transformations to our diet, but just improvements that should be pretty manageable. Of course, part of this is about getting the word out, and this is what science is increasingly showing, that there are a number of thought leaders who voice the importance of these dietary changes. Then, we hope to contribute by really showing the clear links and building the science that connects these components to help because that's the way medicine thinks about it: here's a drug, here's a compound that actually can have a clinically proven effect. So we can show that through individual new discoveries, as well as clinical studies that we are conducting and will fund in the future. Then I think that starts to turn the tide because people can see how other people are living better lives and maybe think, “Now, I want to do it. I want to make some changes myself.” I will say this will take a generation for the science to develop to think about ways to communicate to consumers the benefits of the goodness that’s in the plant. And even within certain things like what we're finding in our work, that even things like soy, that we always think of as commodities and as “all the same,” it actually turns out there are really important differences not only between different sources – where they're grown in the world – that affect not only flavor but also health potential. For us, I think that's part of how we get the story out about the power in nature and how we can harness very advanced technology to understand what nature has given us.

BT: It's really interesting – I feel like the talk about people's common misconceptions reminds me of how we always see these large online platforms talk about benefits of this fruit and that ingredient, and it must be very interesting, from a plant biotechnology perspective, to see all of that contradictory information.

JF: That's right, and you're touching on a great point, which is, as many in the community have said, that all of science has actually been reasonably consistent, but what gets reported oftentimes are things that appear to be contradictory. So it's creating a lot of confusion amongst consumers about what's really good for me. And then the second point is, oftentimes we think certain things are good for us and certainly every nutritionist or dietician will tell you that eating a more plant-rich diet is better for you, but what the field hasn't done until recently is be able to say why. Like what's the reason to believe? And what the science is showing now is, in fact, that all of these compounds the plants produce for their own growth and survival, we've evolved around them. And it makes sense now that if we reduce our consumption of them, having evolved around them, that will have health consequences. So there are a lot of benefits to restoring and increasing the consumption, but now we can use the intelligence that our Brightseed is developing to really make the very precise connections between a compound we didn't know about and plants or a set of compounds that actually have the impact on a well-known part of human biology. And therefore, their effects can translate to meaningful health benefits, and so that precision really helps us, both in terms of understanding how to apply it in the best way to have the most effect, but also just to build confidence. This is really the thing we need to be focused on because you see more and more examples of discoveries translating to things that improve health.

BT: Yeah, that's really cool! I want to end off with something our readers might be interested in; do you have any small piece of advice for any aspiring entrepreneurs?

JF: To quote Nike: just do it. You know, it took me most of my career to finally just muster up the nerve to start, and it's something I had always known that I wanted to do and when I had, finally, the opportunity, we seized it. And I would just say I think the first thing is, if you think about this – I don't know if you've climbed mountains or are an avid hiker, but I did a lot of that when I was younger and still do a fair amount now – you realize you can plan, think about how you're going to get up the mountain, and think about every contingency, but really the most important point is just to get started. Because once you're on the mountain, you’ll find your way through. So I would say: number one, just start. But then, secondly, know that the most difficult part of the journey is getting something off the ground, and so you just have to build persistence and resilience in those early months because, again, you can get easily frustrated by people or investors not quite getting the idea you have or not understanding the value in it. And you just have to work at it, hear feedback, adjust, and refine, but just stay committed, and if you get past that stage, then you have a reasonable chance of doing something special. It's really hard at the beginning, and you just have to know that going in. So, I guess I would just wrap it up by saying, go for it! You will not regret it, you will learn so much, and it can be so fulfilling, and just be prepared for the toughest part of that journey, which is that first year. Just be prepared for it, don't get too excited when things go well, don't get too frustrated when it seems like there are barriers; you can overcome, but just stick with it and stay through and you can be so fulfilled.

BT: That's great, thank you so much!