Direction 1: Research on the structure-effects relationship of food-derived peptides and product development
For a long time, Beijing Engineering Research Center of Protein and Functional Peptides has established good technical exchanges and cooperation with foreign famous universities and research institutions such as The University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, RIKEN, Osaka University, Chiba University, Harvard University, University of California, Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, Mayo Medical Center, etc, and also jointly established an international cooperative research platform for food-derived peptides. The two partners cooperated on the separation and purification, structure identification, functional evaluation and mechanism of action of the protein and functional peptides, especially on the mechanism of the effect of food-derived peptides on alcohol detoxification and liver protection, and the application of food-derived peptides in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease and organism aging, etc. Both sides conducted in-depth cooperative research.
Since 2012, the food-derived peptides materials developed by the Engineering Center have been used in well-known foreign health-care enterprises to develop a series of nutritional and health terminal products, including wheat peptide and collagen peptide. Based on this material, the Center and Japan Food Peptide Research Institute Co., Ltd. jointly established the production technology of terminal food such as ultra-short peptide elderly nitrogen source nutritional supplement products. Based on corn peptide and collagen peptide, the Center has established terminal food production technology with Japan SARAYA Biochemical Research Institute for sports gel and post-operative nutrition support products. Besides, corn peptide, wheat peptide and collagen peptide have been used to established terminal food production technology for glutamine enhanced muscle building peptide powder, anti-hangover energy coffee and pure peptide slimming meal replacement by the Center and American A&Z Pharmaceutical Inc. These products are sold in the U.S. and Japanese markets, creating significant social and economic benefits.
Direction 2: Research on fermentation regulation technology and product identification of natural fruit and vegetable enzyme products
In 2017, the R&D Department of Functional Peptide Industrialization signed a cooperative research agreement with Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, aiming at establishing the identification and regulation technology of orange peel and orange flesh enzyme fermentation products, and building a relevant basic research cooperation platform and jointly promoting the steady development of enzyme industry. The team from Rutgers University is dedicated to the research of food nanotechnology and biopolymers, especially in the area of transportation of functional active substances in food using nanoparticles as carriers. Combining the experience of the Fermentation Institute in strain screening and industrial application of fermentation technology, the two sides cooperated on the screening and identification of fermentation strains, fermentation process research, fermentation product analysis, fermentation metabolism regulation, and qualitative and quantitative analysis of related characteristic functional components of orange peel enzymes and orange flesh enzyme, aiming at solving the critical problems in the basic research of natural fruit and vegetable enzyme products. The research on strain screening, structural product identification and in-vitro function evaluation has been finished. With the close cooperation, the two partners have also jointly overcome the difficulty of structural transformation in the fermentation of polymethoxyflavonoids. In the future, the two sides will dedicate to promote the absorption of active substances in the human body by fermentation regulation methods and explore the transformation pathways together, so as to achieve the goal that orange peel and orange flesh enzyme products can play a preventive role in a metabolic syndrome and other diseases.