Should mother's milk be produced in the lab?

Human milk grown from mammary cells could liberate breastfeeding women - but it's a controversial sell

One of the saddest things about being diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago (it was fortunately treatable) was having to stop breastfeeding my 10-month-old baby. Unceremoniously she was shunted on to an early diet of pure solid food, which I reasoned was probably just as nutritious as infant formula and the best solution in the absence of donor milk from a breast-milk bank, which is reserved for premature and ill babies, and dispensed by prescription.

Baby Agnes thrived, but what if there were another option? What if we could make human breast milk in the lab? Enter startups Biomilq and TurtleTree Labs, founded in 2019 and based in the US (North Carolina) and Singapore respectively. The companies believe they can provide a more nutritious alternative to infant formula by inducing human mammary cells in a bioreactor to lactate, then harvesting the product. The end goal is a product that is as close to breast milk as we can produce," says Michelle Egger, Biomilq's co-founder and CEO.