Millions of moms pump and store their breast milk every year. Yet, 75% say they’ve had to throw some away. Because their babies reject it. Because the thawed milk turns rancid. Who knows? What we do know is that’s a lot of lost liquid gold.
Moms need to store their breast milk. To go back to work. To share the load. To catch a break. And they deserve a solid solution.
According to a recent survey of 2,013 breastfeeding parents across the United States who said they threw away milk “once or a few times.”
A survey of lactating women indicates 25% of infants offered expressed, stored human milk refused to consume it. Sources: https://scholarworks.uttyler.edu/hkdept_fac/17/
Evaluation showed that fishy-metallic odour attributes are generated during storage of human milk, as are rancid-sweaty notes, which were described by panellists to be highly unpleasant. Sources: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0950329310000819
After Katie and Justin Silpe welcomed their second child and a few months of maternity leave, Katie returned to work and Justin took over feeding their baby during the day — with Katie’s frozen stash. But when Justin offered the thawed breast milk to their daughter, she refused to drink it.
Other parents online reported the same issues feeding their babies their frozen breastmilk. They all noticed the change in taste and smell. They all didn’t know what to do about it.
There was no explanation. Or credible information anywhere online. So Justin decided to study it. He brought Katie’s thawed milk into Bonnie Bassler’s Princeton laboratory, used the same scientific techniques he used to study bacterial cell-cell communication, and found that the milk was changing after storage. Not just the texture and flavor, but the nutrition too.
Justin applied high-throughput screening to human milk to see if he could find a set of ingredients that would preserve the milk’s structure and nutritional value after storage. But first, he would need a lot of breastmilk. Justin developed a protocol, Katie engaged her network, and the couple drove around New Jersey collecting donations from dozens of pumping moms.
After extensive research and screening, Justin discovered a combination of three infant-safe, natural ingredients that, when added to breast milk, keep it fresh in the freezer.
“Maternal health is woefully underfunded—including breast milk research. Yet, it is universally recommended as the ideal first food system for its health, environmental, and economic benefits—while being the hardest job new parents have to do. This complex paradox needs unraveling, and we believe that begins with better scientific evidence.”
~Maggie Moore, Co-Founder & CEO
We are developing completely new, science-backed products to help moms keep their breast milk fresh for longer. Because the more breast milk for baby—and the more we *know* about that breast milk—the less stress there is around feeding baby.
Mom, Co-Founder, CEO
Moore has committed her career to driving social impact and serving parents and families. She earned her Master’s of Public Health in Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2022. Previously, she worked at Goldman Sachs in a variety of roles around the world, serving clients in US, European, and emerging markets. Moore has worked across public, private, and non-profit sectors, including serving as an advisor and board member at organizations like Roca and Boston Community Pediatrics.
Dad, Co-Founder, CSO
Recently awarded the Activate fellowship, Silpe received his Ph.D. in molecular biology at Princeton University. He went on to work as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, where he was awarded a Women's Health Fellowship (2020) from the Foundation of Women’s Wellness and a Jane Coffin Childs Fund for Medical Research postdoctoral fellowship to work on the connection between the vaginal microbiome and preterm birth. He then returned to Princeton to study the viruses that prey on bacteria, but shifted his focus to studying breastmilk composition in 2023. He had received many honors, including VSRC scholar in Princeton’s Complex Fluids Research Group, the Sternberg Thesis Prize for outstanding Ph.D. work in the field of bacterial molecular biology and the International Birnstiel Award.
View Justin’s CVCo-Founder
An esteemed molecular biologist, Bassler leads the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University as the Squibb Professor and Chair. She is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has received many awards for her scientific breakthroughs. Her honors include a MacArthur Fellowship (the so-called Genius Prize), the Shaw Prize in Life Sciences and Medicine, the Albany Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, and the Wolf Prize in Chemistry.
View Bonnie’s CV
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Maggie and Justin, Co-Founders
