Unilever and Arzeda are joining forces to apply the most recent developments in digital biology to discovering and designing new enzymes. Unilever is looking to use the resulting technology to substitute some of its leading cleaning and laundry products, like OMO (Persil), Sunlight and Surf.
Besides being responsible for nearly all biological functions, enzymes have also long been a key ingredient in cleaning and laundry products as they break down stains made from fat, oils and protein chains on our laundry and surfaces.
Arzeda is an industry-leading, Seattle-based Protein Design Company, which partners with Fortune 500 companies and industrial leaders to develop healthy and sustainable products for the food & nutrition, advanced materials, and diagnostics & pharma industries globally.
Arzeda uses smart technologies such as a combination of physics-based computational protein design and deep learning, a form of AI to optimize the functionalities of nature-found enzymes. The company also develops modifications with unique benefits that would otherwise not have been possible.
The proprietary digital biology techniques developed by Arzeda will be applied by Unilever to its own product innovations across its cleaning and laundry product offers.
For this alliance, Arzeda and Unilever attempt to optimize enzymes in order to replace ingredients with a high environmental footprint commonly found in most cleaning and laundry products. As part of its Clean Future strategy, Unilever has committed to eliminate virgin fossil fuels as a feedstock for the chemicals in its cleaning and laundry product formulations. Through enzymes, which are low carbon, naturally derived and deliver added performance benefits it can achieve this goal. The success of this partnership in discovery and optimization of new enzymes in product formulations could result in up to 50% less ingredients required, while providing the consumer with greater cleaning benefits.
“This partnership is an exciting step forward as we work to transform our cleaning and laundry business to be superior, sustainable and affordable to all,” said Unilever Home Care President Peter ter Kulve. “We look forward to working with Arzeda in developing a new generation of ultra-performing cleaning and laundry products with an environmental impact a fraction of the size of current products.”
“We are delighted to work with Unilever to support their Clean Future ambition with enzymes that improve the environmental footprint of consumer products,” said Alexandre Zanghellini, CEO and founder of Arzeda. “Arzeda’s mission is to design and manufacture new proteins that improve health and sustainability, and we see this partnership as a key milestone to make this a reality in home care. Working with Unilever, we hope to create a new era for industrial enzymes that will contribute to a more sustainable world while improving consumer experience.”
