#326 - BabyLat – Custom Human Milk Fortifiers from Mother’s Milk

Hello friends 👋

This week on Tech Tuesday, Ben and Daphna speak with Dr. Zina Yudina, founder and CEO of BabyLat, a Swiss startup building a novel device to help hospitals create fortifier directly from a mother’s own milk!

Zina shares how the idea began as a way to support working mothers with limited maternity leave, but quickly evolved into a system for concentrating and fortifying human milk for preterm and very low birth weight infants. The BabyLat device uses pressure-driven ultrafiltration to preserve the natural components of human milk while boosting its nutritional value, all in a compact unit designed for hospital use.

The conversation covers how hospitals might implement the tool, how much time is currently spent fortifying feeds manually, and how BabyLat fits into the larger movement toward 100% human milk-based nutrition. Zina also discusses the challenges of raising support for neonatal innovations, and how clinical teams can get involved in early research and pilot use.

It’s a practical look at the future of personalized milk preparation—and what it might take to make it a new standard of care.

Link to episode on youtube: https://youtu.be/TPaURrghnts

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Short Bio: Dr. Zina Yudina is a molecular biologist and protein biochemist with over 15 years of experience in translational medicine. She holds a PhD in Pharmacy and has contributed to several peer-reviewed publications and patent applications.  

Born in Murmansk, Russia, in 1980, Dr. Yudina earned her B.Sc. in Biology before pursuing advanced studies and research across Europe and the United States.  Her scientific expertise spans molecular biology, biochemistry, and pharmacology. 

In 2020, she founded Babylat AG in Bern, Switzerland, where she serves as CEO. The company developed a compact, automated device that enriches human milk with protein and fat, aiming to improve nutrition for preterm infants without relying on cow’s milk-based additives. This innovation supports hospitals in providing 100% human milk-based diets for neonates.  

Dr. Yudina’s inspiration for Babylat stemmed from her personal experience balancing motherhood and a demanding research career. Recognizing the challenges working mothers face in maintaining breastfeeding, she envisioned a solution to extend the benefits of human milk. This vision evolved into Babylat’s mission to enhance neonatal nutrition through personalized, human milk-based fortification. 

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The transcript of today's episode can be found below 👇

Ben Courchia, MD: Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Incubator podcast. We are back today with a new episode of Tech Tuesday. Daphna, good morning.

Daphna Yasova Barbeau, MD: Good morning.

Ben Courchia, MD We are joined today by a special guest coming to us from Sweden—Zina Yudina. No, from Switzerland!

Daphna Yasova Barbeau, MD: I know you're very good at geography, Ben.

Ben Courchia, MD: Oh my God. I heard Sweden from the beginning. It's a funny story because obviously I'm from Europe, so I know very well that these are two very different countries. We had Pia Wintermark come to speak to us at Delphi, and she mentioned in her introduction that she is from Switzerland, and somehow she also said, "Which is not Sweden, so don't confuse the two." I found that very funny. And here I am making the exact same mistake. So I apologize, Zina. Welcome to the show.

Zina Yudina: Thank you very much, Ben and Daphna, for your kind introduction and invitation. Actually, Ben, you were partially right. I'm originally from Fennoscandia—north of Russia, Murmansk, above the Polar Circle—where I spent 20 years of my life. Then I moved down, first to Moscow, then Europe, and later to the United States. But now we are in Switzerland, and it's a Swiss startup.

Ben Courchia, MD: You're only picking nice places, I see. You only decide to live in beautiful places. That's a nice choice. You are the founder and CEO of BabyLat, a new device that is aimed to improve preterm nutrition. There's some buzz going around about BabyLat. I think people are excited. Can you tell us a little bit—what is BabyLat and what problem are you trying to solve?

Zina Yudina: It's a huge pleasure to hear that people are talking about us. It's already a very good sign, and I hope they're talking positively. So BabyLat—

Ben Courchia, MD:They are. I can reassure you—they are talking positively about it.

Zina Yudina: Wonderful, yes. And that’s actually my general feeling when I meet people. Maybe it's already biased—if they're willing to meet us, they're already super positive and supportive of the idea. They're usually very enthusiastic about the idea and our approach. What it’s about, shortly: we want to give preterm babies, especially those with very low birth weight, the chance to use a 100% human milk-based diet at any hospital. How do we do it? We want to give hospitals a device to use milk, which they collect locally from the baby’s mother or from donor milk if not available, and enrich this milk to make fortifiers on-site.

Ben Courchia, MD: Wow, that’s incredible. So basically giving institutions the opportunity to create their own human milk fortifiers based on donor milk or, even more exciting, from the baby’s own mother. And for those parents where the nurses say, "We have tons of milk," you might be able to take a bit of that excess and create your own fortifier. That is so impressive. How did you come up with this idea?

Zina Yudina: Thank you for framing it so nicely and positively. In reality, we sometimes meet hospitals that don’t have milk at all—but let’s not talk about those now. How I came to this idea: I wanted to develop a futuristic approach, first for any working mother who has a short maternity leave and needs a way to concentrate milk at home.

Then, when breastfeeding decreases, she would have in her freezer small samples of highly concentrated milk. That idea didn’t fly—it’s too speculative. But when I started talking with neonatologists about seven years ago, I was directed toward preterm nutrition. I had never been informed about the topic or told about the protein deficiency in preterm babies.

When I started studying it, I was amazed and convinced that it should be better than cow milk-based fortifiers. Now we’re in a big debate—is it really better, or is it just the market pushing this? But as scientists, we still believe that a 100% human milk-based diet should be more beneficial and protective than mixing milk with other substances.

Daphna Yasova Barbeau, MD: I love that. I think this is so cool. I mean, even just to have a commercial product where we can measure what's in the milk we already have—right now, in the U.S., very few hospitals are even able to analyze the nutritional components of the milk. So being able to do that would be step one. And you're taking it a step further—saying, now that we know what the components are, how can we concentrate it? What kind of parameters or milk modifications can you make? I heard protein—can you tell us more specifics?

Zina Yudina: Wonderful—so I want to give several answers here. Initially, I focused only on proteins because they're the most well-known for their immunoprotective effects. When we talk about necrotizing enterocolitis and other morbidities, proteins come to mind first.

But we don’t yet fully understand the protective effects of fat, which may also be very important—just harder to study. Doctors told us to keep the fat in. What we all agree on is that carbohydrates aren't necessary for enrichment—especially since some, like lactose, can be difficult to digest.

After many discussions, we focused our enrichment on protein and fat. This actually made the task easier—we didn’t need to remove fat first. Now it’s a single-step ultrafiltration method: we push air through a filter to remove water and small molecules, keeping all components above 10 kilodaltons—proteins, fat, cells, microbiota.

Ben Courchia, MD: How successful have you been at achieving your goal? When you're trying to fortify human milk, how accurate is BabyLat in achieving the desired protein levels? Is there some margin of error—like plus or minus 5%?

Zina Yudina: Yes, you're not far off. We always lose a small amount of protein—1% to 5%, depending on whether the milk was pasteurized. Pasteurized proteins are partially denatured and more prone to aggregating, but the loss is still small. For fat, it's about 5%, mostly due to nonspecific binding to surfaces.

What we’re really doing is removing water, so when you ask about hitting a specific target—well, human milk composition varies a lot. Fat can vary by 30%, protein by 10–20%. So, we don’t aim for a fixed number like manufacturer labels. Instead, we give doctors flexibility—it’s like a coffee machine: you can make a latte, cappuccino, espresso.

Ben Courchia, MD: Love that analogy! I was going to ask—how big is the device? Is it like a coffee machine? Does it need its own room? Is this something hospitals can buy for one unit, or do they need several per patient?

Zina Yudina: It’s slightly bigger than a coffee machine—60 cm tall and 40 cm wide. Not huge at all. You could definitely find space in the NICU.

Ben Courchia, MD: So, not too big. What is that in U.S. units—like 2 feet by 1.5 feet?

Daphna Yasova Barbeau, MD: Yeah, it's not big at all. I think we can make space for that—we have much bigger things in the unit.

Zina Yudina: Yes, and don’t forget it needs air under pressure. But that’s solved by using third-party services that provide certified gas tanks. We don’t supply those—you order them locally.

As for the usage model—it's not economical to buy a device per baby. We provide two filtration units per device—only one device is needed. You concentrate 0.5 liters of milk to 70 ml of highly concentrated fortifier, increasing protein and fat concentration by a factor of 7. That makes five doses, each taken once per day. It takes 48 hours max. If it’s term milk, it’s usually faster, since there’s less fat. If it’s preterm milk, it could be more complex but still completes within 48 hours.

While using one filtration device, we recommend cleaning the second filtration unit in between (ideally autoclave it, to prevent any transmission); other materials are single-use. Once you're done with one baby’s milk, you start with the next. In larger hospitals, two devices might be recommended. You can freeze the fortifier for five days.

Ben Courchia, MD: Have you been able to pilot this in hospitals?

Zina Yudina: We have a lot of interest from hospitals in Europe and the U.S., but it's not very attractive to investors. It's a niche, risky, novel area with no existing model—and neonatology is still seen as a neglected field.

Ben Courchia, MD: That’s the story of neonatology, sadly. There are never going to be enough premature babies to attract big VC money. It’s a shame.

Zina Yudina: Yes, so today is a great opportunity for a call to action. If you’re a hospital that’s interested, or know of grants to support such studies, please contact us. We’d be more than happy.

Daphna Yasova Barbeau, MD: I was going to ask—once a unit has the device, how easy is it to train staff, make the calculations, and keep things running?

Zina Yudina: Currently, staff already spend a lot of time preparing bovine fortifiers and mixing them with human milk. Our process takes a bit more commitment, but cleaning is easy, and the enrichment cycle runs autonomously. The only extra part is measuring the milk.

We have our own small analyzer that measures protein and fat using UV spectroscopy. It's an accessory, not required. Hospitals could use third-party analyzers too. You just plug the values into a spreadsheet (or in the future, software), add baby weight and feeding volume, and we calculate the proper dilution to meet daily nutritional needs.

It sounds complex, but most hospitals ignore milk analysis now. We recommend it for better accuracy, but you can reuse the same measurements for five days.

Daphna Yasova Barbeau, MD: Yeah. It may seem complicated, but most neonatologists aren’t involved in milk prep. If you are, you realize how much time is spent daily by nurses or milk techs. It’s a lot of hours. This is very interesting—I like it a lot. What’s the best way for people to contact you to learn more?

Zina Yudina: Yes, we have working prototypes and are running studies. If people want to get involved, they can reach us through our website: www.babylat.com, or email us at info@babylat.com. I'm also available on LinkedIn and respond quickly. Our team is small and efficient—just me and three others. We're mostly focused on fundraising now, though I’d love to run more studies, especially on raw milk like in Norway.

A lot of the studies comparing bovine and human fortifiers don’t show big differences, probably because the human milk used is already heavily processed. Our method uses the freshest milk, and I think we could generate some really exciting data.

Ben Courchia, MD: I think this will really resonate with NICU parents. It's not about creating rankings, but giving families options. Every situation is different—some parents in Nordic countries have extended parental leave and may have more breast milk, while in the U.S., parents often return to work quickly. Regardless of the situation, having options matters. Hospitals are getting good outcomes now, and the next step is offering tailored care. That’s where BabyLat really shines.

So, if you want to learn more about BabyLat, just Google BabyLat or go to babylat.com. You’ll find more information there, including how to contact the team.

Zina, thank you so much for joining us and sharing this incredible innovation. We wish you all the best. We’ll also include contact info in the show notes.

Zina Yudina: Thank you very much, Ben. It was a huge pleasure. Thank you, Daphna, as well. It was great to see you, and hopefully we’ll meet in person one day.

Daphna Yasova Barbeau, MD: Our pleasure. Very exciting—we’re looking forward to seeing what’s next for BabyLat.