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Willow Biosciences and Kalsec have announced a Master Services Agreement (MSA) to develop an enzyme used in the biocatalytic production of a new ingredient for use in natural beverage applications. Willow develops and produces precision fermented functional ingredients for the food and beverage industry, among others, while Kalsec is a global producer of natural taste and sensory, food protection, colours and advanced hops ingredients for the F&B industry. Willow's 'FutureGrown' technology platform is a fully integrated solution for rapid enzyme and strain engineering, process development and scaled-up manufacturing that uses the latest technologies available for precision fermentation. Kalsec’s projects, which focus on yeast, are said to be an ideal host for the production of numerous ingredients for the food and beverage sector. Chris Savile, Willow's president and CEO, said: "We are pleased to have executed this follow-on engagement with Kalsec, and I'm proud of our R&D team's success in collaborating with Kalsec to rapidly attain our joint development goals. We look forward to further evidencing our technological capabilities through what we believe will be a similarly successful outcome for this next program." The MSA marks the second collaborative development program Willow and Kalsec have participated in following the announcement of an MSA in November last year. Roger Nahas, executive VP of global R&D and CIO at Kalsec, added: "We are excited to expand our partnership with Willow and leverage each party's significant domain expertise toward what we believe will be successful commercial-scale production in 2024. This work also supports Kalsec's purpose of unlocking the potential of people, nature and science to nurture the world."