About Helaina | Reinventing Human-Milk Proteins
Partnering to advance science-based early-life nutrition.
A milestone for early life nutrition and a window into human lactoferrin potential.
Our Experience
2019
How We Began
Founded on the premise that nutrition could be smarter, Helaina begins its work to recreate the most functional proteins for human health, starting with lactoferrin.
2021
From R&D to Reality
With a $20M Series A, we accelerate our research, building out our proprietary tech stack and proving our ability to produce human proteins outside the body.
2024
Scaling the Breakthrough
A $45M Series B fuels our transition from an R&D company to a commercial enterprise, preparing to bring our innovation to a global market.
2025
The Future, Delivered
We achieve metric-ton scale manufacturing of effera®, launching in multiple consumer products and marking a new era for precision fermentation and human nutrition.
Our Mission
Empowering Health Through Innovation
The spark for Helaina came from an unexpected place: a podcast about the black market for breast milk. Our founder, Laura Katz, realized that everyone from athletes to new parents were going to extraordinary lengths to access the powerful bioactive proteins found in human milk.
She saw not a problem, but a question: what if we could use technology to recreate these vital nutrients, making them safe, accessible, and available to all? Helaina was founded to answer that question.
Meet Laura Katz
Innovator in Food Science and Founder of Helaina
Laura Katz is a food scientist who has been featured in Forbes' 30 Under 30 for her work in redefining the future of nutrition. Before founding Helaina, she developed innovative products for some of the nation's most recognized food brands.
Laura's insight that precision fermentation could be used not just to imitate, but to create biologically-aligned nutrients, is the driving force behind Helaina's mission.
Our Team
We are an enthusiastic, diverse team of the best and brightest scientists, engineers, and business professionals, united by a single belief: that the future of nutrition is human-centric.
Dr. Anthony Clark
Chief Technology Officer
Dr. Anthony Clark on LinkedIn
Dr. Pamela Botero Besada-Lombana
VP, R&D
Dr. Pamela Bostero Besada-Lombana on LinkedIn
Taylor Burroughs
SVP, Head of Finance
Taylor Burroughs on LinkedIn
Dr. Ross Peterson
VP, Scientific & Regulatory Affairs
Dr. Ross Peterson on LinkedIn
Dr. Shaswat Vajpeyi
VP, Bioprocess & Engineering
Dr. Shaswat Vajpeyi on LinkedIn
Claire Carlson
VP, Strategy
Claire Carlson on LinkedIn
Odd Hansen
Chief Scale-up Officer
Odd Hansen on LinkedIn
Ashley Larkin
Chief People Officer
Ashley Larkin on LinkedIn