More Nutritious Plants

Plants and fungi have sneaky superpowers—some of which come in the form of bioactives, natural compounds that could benefit gut bacteria and human health. “Somewhere along the way, we lost a lot of that knowledge,” says Lee Chae, CTO of Brightseed and creator of Forager, which uses AI to help map the plant genome, which contains clues to the bioactives. The system, in turn, has assembled the world’s largest library of natural small molecule compounds—over seven million and counting—and linked them to potential health benefits. This map can be used by food companies to understand their bioactives, as with Brightseed’s partnership with Blue Diamond, attempting to optimize its almonds.