THE STORY
Read about the surprising discoveries that led to the creation of FORZA™️
Meanwhile, in 1995, in a seemingly unrelated event, the human hormone Adiponectin was discovered in the adipose tissue, which gives it its name. It quickly became clear that Adiponectin could be an excellent anti-diabetes therapeutic target candidate. However, as time went by, no practical way of using Adiponectin therapeutically was identified. Efforts to create a synthetic version of Adiponectin failed as well.
In the late 1990s, following his success with the development of the Osmotin-rich olive and kiwi plants in Italy, our CEO Dr. Bruno Ruggiero, Ph.D. was invited to continue his work on Osmotin by joining a US-based team of plant biotech researchers at Purdue University, one of the world's leading agricultural universities. The US-based team set to work, and they soon noted a remarkable similarity between the newly published 3D structure of Adiponectin and that of the plant protein Osmotin. If they were right, this overlapping of structures meant that Osmotin would mimic Adiponectin's therapeutic activity and, as it was sourced from plants, theoretically, Osmotin could become a tangible and powerful anti-diabetes therapeutic candidate. The initial laboratory work in animal diabetes models confirmed this expectation and a entirely new horizon of opportunities became open to exploration.
Osmotin's and Adiponectin's 3D structures overlap allowing Osmotin to mimic Adiponectin's functions.
Dr. Ruggiero, who had by then completed his PhD., had also founded his first biotech company in the US and launched it on the London Stock Exchange, and continued his work on Osmotin, among other cutting edge biotechnologies. In 2004 Bruno provided a $1 million USD gift to Purdue University to promote research on Osmotin's human health applications.