PIPA and Mars, Incorporated accelerate science discovery in food and health using Artificial Intelligence

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DAVIS, Calif., April 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — PIPA LLC announced today that it has entered into a multi-year agreement with Mars, Incorporated to accelerate the discovery of new, plant-based ingredients. PIPA’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform, LEAP™, will leverage biomedical databases and innovation pipelines to provide Mars with unique capabilities for designing new products to address growing consumer demand for health benefits from foods, beverages and dietary supplements. PIPA is an Artificial Intelligence company dedicated to accelerating scientific discovery in the service of innovation and commercialization of products and services at the interface of food, nutrition and health.

By joining forces with Mars, we are placing Artificial Intelligence at the center of food, nutrition, and health.

Mars Associates will have the opportunity to use LEAP™, thereby accelerating discovery compared with traditional ingredient-identification methods of randomized, high-throughput screening. LEAP™ combines state-of-the-art AI and bioinformatics to integrate biomedical databases, scientific publications, clinical trial and omics datasets to highlight associations among molecular and food-related entities with microbes and diseases. This helps predict connections that can accelerate new product development.

The new agreement comes after the completion of several AI-driven R&D engagements in human and pet health, including a demonstration that disease risk can be predicted from veterinary health data. Through this discovery work PIPA created a model that helped Mars to develop the RENALTECH^® diagnostic tool that predicts kidney disease in cats.

The agreement also reflects Mars’ and PIPA’s shared efforts to promote the health and wellbeing of people and pets through better health and nutrition. Both companies believe that use of AI could accelerate development of new products that deliver health benefits.

Nici Bush, VP, Innovation, Science and Technology at Mars said: “PIPA is an important and valuable research collaborator for Mars. Their science and technology strengths will translate into business impact, opening doors for Mars and the wider food industry.”

Dr. Abigail Stevenson, Vice President of the Mars Advanced Research Institute (MARI), which connects Mars with emerging science and technology, said: “PIPA’s capabilities are accelerating the development of MARI initiatives to help spark new discoveries that could lead to new products and services where Mars can improve the lives of people and their pets. We’re excited to work with them to explore new opportunities that can enhance nutrition and benefit health.”

PIPA and MARI will roll out LEAP™ to science, technology and innovation teams at Mars over the next two years. Mr. George Nikolaou, VP of Product at PIPA, said: “By joining forces with Mars, we are placing AI at the center of food, nutrition, and health. We are bringing to fruition new methods for science discovery that mean business teams empowered by AI can unlock novel, high-quality insights faster and more cost-effectively than previously imagined.”

Dr. Ilias Tagkopoulos, founder of PIPA and director of the USDA AI Institute of Next Generation Food Systems (AIFS) at University of California, Davis, commented on the role that AI has to play in Food and Health: “The next decade we will witness a paradigm shift in the way we understand food, its effect to our health and well-being. The trifecta of mapping the molecular atlas of food, leveraging state-of-the-art computational methods that learn from data and nurturing a vibrant ecosystem that translates discoveries to practice, creates the perfect storm for an unprecedented disruption and brings us one step closer to the Hippocratic “let food be thy medicine”.”

About PIPA
PIPA is an AI company on a mission to radically accelerate innovation at the interface of food, nutrition, and health by combining advanced data analytics, bioinformatics and AI. LEAP™, PIPA’s flagship AI platform enables the discovery of bioactive compounds, ingredients, and formulation to inform the next generation of foods, beverages, and dietary supplements aiming to address rapidly growing consumer interest in health and performance in this multi-trillion USD global sector.

Established in 2015 in Davis, California, PIPA has teamed up with CPG and biotech clients on more than 50 AI-driven engagements spanning nutrition, life sciences, agriculture, food science, and business operations. PIPA combines the deep technology expertise of its data scientists, bioinformaticians, and engineers with state-of-the-art AI, and a scalable infrastructure to guide decision-making and deliver breakthrough innovation opportunities. Learn more about our history, products, and pipeline at pipacorp.com and follow us on LinkedIn for the latest news and updates.

About Mars, Incorporated
For more than a century, Mars Incorporated has been driven by the belief that the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today. This idea is at the center of who we have always been as a global, family-owned business. Today, Mars is transforming, innovating and evolving in ways that affirm our commitment to making a positive impact on the world around us.

Across our diverse and expanding portfolio of confectionery, food and petcare products and services, we employ 133,000 dedicated Associates who are all moving in the same direction: forward. With $40 billion in annual sales, we produce some of the world’s best-loved brands including DOVE^®, EXTRA^®, M&M’s^®, MILKY WAY^®, SNICKERS^®, TWIX^®, ORBIT^®, PEDIGREE^®, ROYAL CANIN^®, SKITTLES^®, BEN’S ORIGINAL™, WHISKAS^®, COCOAVIA^® and 5™; and take care of half of the world’s pets through our nutrition, health and services businesses, including AniCura, Banfield Pet Hospitals™, BluePearl^®, Linnaeus and VCA™.

We know we can only be truly successful if our partners and the communities in which we operate prosper as well. The Mars Five Principles – Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom – inspire our Associates to take action every day to help create a world tomorrow in which the planet, its people and pets can thrive. The Mars Compass, inspired by the Economics of Mutuality, is used to measure the company’s progress in service of its purpose; The world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today.

About MARI
The Mars Advanced Research Institute (MARI) connects emerging science and technology in the fields of sustainability, health and wellness, and computational science to spark discoveries, seeking new and exciting technological and scientific discoveries.

Together with external collaborators, MARI nurtures innovations that deliver strategic and financial value to Mars and the planet in furtherance of Mars’ mission to deliver the world we want tomorrow, today.

Contact
Polina Hadjipanayiotou
[email protected]