The company offers cross-cutting services spanning the food, pharmaceutical, medical, cosmetic, and environmental sectors. (Autor: Mireia Ochoa)
Specializing in the recovery of endangered plants with high value for health and the balance of natural ecosystems, Aleovitro is a Biscayan biotechnology company specializing in evaluating, selecting, and cultivating in vitro chemotypes of plants and fungi with optimal performance for use in crops and industrial processes.
«Our services are cross-cutting, as they range from the food, pharmaceutical, medical, and cosmetic sectors to the environmental sector,» explain its directors, Eneko Otxoa and Antonio Laso.
The company, founded in 2014 and headquartered in the Zamudio Business Center, cultivates all types of plants in vitro to research new plant varieties for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries, among other applications. Through the application of mass spectrometry analytical techniques, the company collects vast amounts of data on the chemical composition of plants and evaluates the different chemotypes within the same plant species.
«Understanding how plant species behave at pilot scale in our laboratory greatly facilitates our clients’ efforts to scale up cultivation and industrial production with less technological and economic risk,» the company emphasizes.
One of its preferred lines of research focuses on in vitro cultivation and propagation of plants essential for the recovery of endangered species. In the case of the agri-food industry, the company’s innovative approach ensures the optimization of species such as hops and apple trees for use in the production of hoppy cider, using a selection of elite, native varieties with excellent characteristics. “The increase in pest and disease problems in the cultivation of commercial varieties, along with the need for native genetic material necessary for the creation of 100% locally sourced products for cider producers, has led us to embark on this project,” they explain.
Alongside these projects, Aleovitro is also focusing its efforts on combating diseases such as malaria. To this end, they collaborate with The Art of Discovery, a company that provides services to the Medicines for Malaria Venture, funded, among others, by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, for drug research and trials aimed at eradicating malaria, an infectious disease that causes 400,000 deaths worldwide each year.