Nora Khaldi On The Five Things You Can Do To Become More Resilient During Turbulent Times

I’m a positive person by nature. But no matter how positive you are, there are moments in life that are tough mentally and physically and it takes a lot more than positivity to pick yourself back up. For me, the answer was to always focus on the bigger goal, what needs to be achieved. Having an objective has always been the guiding point to bring me back to the reality that what is happening is a small piece of a larger puzzle and that it’ll pass. Also, what helps me is to focus on my team, I can’t let down my team by being down, I need to raise above all this and start again. This is literally what I tell myself naturally.

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The term Blue Zones has been used to describe places where people live long and healthy lives. What exactly does it take to live a long and healthy life? What is the science and the secret behind longevity and life extension? In this series, we are talking to medical experts, wellness experts, and longevity experts to share “5 Things You Need To Live A Long, Healthy, & Happy Life”. As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Nora Khaldi.

Dr. Nora Khaldi is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nuritas, a biotechnology company able to identify, unlock, clinically test and patent a new generation of active ingredients: bioactive peptides from nature; turning them into powerful and precise ingredients that elevate natural efficacy. Dr. Khaldi has an ambitious goal to make revolutionary discoveries, using the power of AI to revolutionize the discovery of healthier, safer and greener ingredients, that will help companies create the products of the future and allow people to live healthier for longer. She received the ‘Woman of the Decade in Business and Leadership’ award at the Women Economic Forum in 2017 and was inducted into the Young Global Leaders, the World Economic Forum’s foundation for remarkable leaders under 40 in 2019.

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Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’?

I have a PhD in Molecular Evolution and Bioinformatics from Trinity College, Dublin, as well as a Masters in Mathematics from Aix-Marseille University. I am the Founder and CEO of Nuritas. Our mission is to help companies innovate to create a better version of the products we consume everyday from what we eat, to what we apply on our skin, all the way to what we feed our animals. Since launching in 2014, Nuritas has grown rapidly, and we are now further strengthening our international presence with a team in the US and a string of senior appointments and several new partnerships in-market. When creating Nuritas, my goal was to contribute to disrupting the status quo of ingredient discovery by integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and big data to unlock novel bio-active peptides from food-based materials for the development of solutions to address consumer needs. Nuritas’ ingredient for muscle health, PeptiStrongTM is revolutionizing the industry as a plant based ingredient outperforming animal protein.

Can you share with us the most interesting story from your career? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?

Founding Nuritas is the highlight of my career and taught me many things. There are so many learning curves when you are starting out, but one thing that I found important was not to take the response “no” personally. Any entrepreneur, male or female, will tell you that there can be a lot of “nos” when you’re talking to companies or different individuals. Initially when you’re starting out and building your network you take these rejections personally, but it’s not personal. It’s just that the moment isn’t right and you just need to pursue what you’re working on, make it better, and come back to them in the future. Don’t write people off for telling you “no” on your first attempt.

The second thing that is so important is surrounding yourself with good people. The biggest thing that I pushed from day one was to surround myself with the best people and I didn’t accept okay standards. I just wanted a really kick-ass team and it has made all the difference. Invest in great people early on in your company and you will see the benefits right away.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful for who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

My family without a doubt. For example, my parents taught me that being different is good, that I shouldn’t just follow if I didn’t truly believe in something. This is how the idea not to accept the status quo was sharpened in me. When I was down all my family pulled me up, when I thought too small they brought me up. Having a supportive family, no matter what, has been a driving force in my life that I am so grateful for.

You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

Seeing the potential in people that have tremendous undiscovered talent, and then allowing them to deliver beyond their own expectations. Challenging while being fair and asking to push higher and leading by example. I don’t ask people to do what I wouldn’t be ready to do. I have always led by mission and example.

Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of our interview about health and longevity. To begin, can you share with our readers a bit about why you are an authority in the fields of health, wellness, and longevity? In your opinion, what is your unique contribution to the world of wellness?

At the start, I am a mathematician with a PhD in Molecular Evolution and Bioinformatics. My research has focused primarily on protein evolution and comparative genomics. Some of my publications have been placed in a library of the top 2% of published articles in the fields of biology and medicine.

Throughout my career, my ambition has been to disrupt the status quo in areas that have been void of technology by introducing new ways of thinking, big data, and new algorithms. Previous to Nuritas, I was the first scientist to show gene transfer between multi-cellular species. This groundbreaking find put into question many of the phylogenetic methods currently in use today.

I have also developed a multitude of innovative software throughout my research career that are used to this day by research institutes and companies in over 70 countries. I have had the chance to lead international research teams around the world, in both academic and industrial settings, and have a proven record in new health-benefiting molecule discovery and commercialization.

In 2014, I founded Nuritas, the first biotech to prove an AI model in life science, all the way from ingredient discovery to commercialisation. In general a lot happens in the lab, but Nuritas is applying the research to concrete solutions for humans really quickly and efficiently, with result-proven products. We have already launched two ingredients: a plant-based revolution in muscle health and a multi-targeted cosmetic ingredient. Those ingredients are a new generation of ingredients: they are peptides found in nature. They exert a cell-signaling effect, sending a message to our body to instruct it to work at its best. They are a language, the language of life. This technology complements the ingredients we have known until today, but can also replace them. Over the next few years, I plan to lead the Nuritas team in their goal of reaching billions of people with their life-changing ingredients.

As our global population grows, it is aging rapidly, and maintenance of health represents a prime opportunity for bioactive ingredients and nutritional interventions. These ingredients are a cost effective and an easily administered interventional strategy to prolong health and quality of life with many applications. Ultimately, there is a need to develop sustainable nutritional strategies to maintain healthy aging in the general population and encompass consumer driven greener trends. In this respect, The Nuritas artificial intelligence platform platform, termed the Nuritas Magnifier NπΦ incorporates large scale analysis of multiple ‘omics’ analysis, manufacturing and in house wet laboratories with AI to discover novel health benefiting ingredients, such as peptides, derived from natural sources. Aging and longevity are a particularly complicated network of interacting driving factors. It is exactly this complexity that has prevented us developing a more concrete understanding of “aging” as a whole. For the complex and multifaceted area of aging and longevity, an AI-integrated discovery platform is primed to address the issues faced by bioactive ingredient development and offers the opportunity to provide plant-based solutions

Seekers throughout history have traveled great distances and embarked on mythical quests in search of the “elixir of life,” a mythical potion said to cure all diseases and give eternal youth. Has your search for health, vitality, and longevity taken you on any interesting paths or journeys? We’d love to hear the story.

Walking into disease is the first thing I observed about humans in general. We all tend to wait and sail throughout life until disease hits us, then we spend the rest of our life taking pills or in treatment. Many of these diseases are preventable or at least they could be set back by many years. It’s like someone driving into a wall that they can clearly see coming, but keep driving towards it with no change of directionality. Just like a herd of sheep, we keep repeating our mistakes. Here is where my questioning the status quo came in handy. Why do we walk into disease? I realized that creating ingredients that improve our overall health, whether metabolically, or immunologically, was currently impossible without spending decades and spending hundreds of millions. On the other hand, most of the ingredients in the products we consume daily have been built to be tastier, cheaper, have better texture. These as a result have caused massive health issues over decades of use. Currently, there is no real way out, unless one were to discover new ingredients to replace the current ones to augment our health, maintain it for longer, while also being sustainable. So, I decided to build an AI technology that could allow faster, more accurate discovery while using nature to find these incredible molecules. That is the story of Nuritas, we discover the next generation of intelligent ingredients in nature that make all the products we consume daily safer, greener and healthier. From what we eat, to what we apply on our skin, all the way to animal nutrition. Molecules that, for the first time, bring efficacy, precision and nature together.

This is how we discovered the future of ingredients fighting muscle aging in a plant: PeptiStrongTM. We started with the efficacy we wanted to see in our bodies: reducing age-related muscle loss, increasing muscle mass and decreasing inflammation. Our unique MagnifierTM platform identified, out of a universe of 6 trillion peptides, the best performing one. We have conducted two clinicals and this ingredient is now challenging animal protein. It can help companies innovate to create the future of supplements and food that will help us stay stronger for longer, and that will answer consumer demand for plant-based, more sustainable products.

Based on your research or experience, can you please share your “5 Things You Need To Live A Long & Healthy Life”? (Please share a story or an example for each)

The Nuritas philosophy lies in expanding a healthier lifestyle, to not only live longer, but to live healthier longer lives. We want to prevent those chronic diseases associated with lifestyle for as long as possible. Bioactive peptides affect healthspan and longevity, so at Nuritas our solution to slow down aging is to discover peptides in nature, unlock them from their protein source, clinically demonstrate their efficacy and produce them with the aim of improving people’s health. This is why my answer would be peptides, peptides, peptides, peptides, peptides. Each peptide that we discover can deliver different results on the human body.

Here are some key benefits of peptides: 1. they are safe, 2. they are specific, 3. they are sustainable: the ones we produce are plant based, 4. they are the natural communicators of the body and 5. have known health benefits.

There are a number of approaches for peptides to modulate longevity such as addressing metabolism, inflammation, clearing out old and dead senescent cells, and increasing mitochondrial biogenesis, etc. Aging is not a one-target approach, it is multi-factorial phenomenon. You have to go after multiple mechanisms at the same time. One factor of aging for example is metabolism, as we age the metabolism of our cells slows down. Another factor is inflammation — as we age, this also increases. Similarly, we see slowing down of mitochondrial biogenesis. Another approach is reversing our senescent cells, etc.

In this regards, Nuritas has developed several ingredients to be integrated to food/supplements or skincare/beauty, to help companies create the products of the future and to improve consumers everyday health:

PeptiStrongTM contains the first natural peptides with a synergistic effect on muscle recovery, strength, energy and mobility. It is a plant-based ingredient, providing a range of solutions that together represent “anti-aging for muscles”, particularly suited to menopausal women, athletes and fitness fans, and aging adults looking to boost strength and reduce fatigue. If you would like to try it out, Glaxon has partnered with Nuritas to create a new supplement called Anomaly, becoming the first brand to use PeptiStrongTM as one of its active ingredients, available via Glaxon & GNC. There are also two other new products on the market, which are powered by Nuritas: Nutrabolt has launched a Cellucor P6 innovation and Healthgevity has just released their anti-aging, precision peptide supplement LONGEVITY.

PeptiYouthTM is another peptide ingredient discovered for its ability to slow down skin aging. It is clinically tested with results on various signs of skin aging. This ingredient has the potential to replace several ingredients in a skin care formula.

Can you suggest a few things needed to live a life filled with happiness, joy, and meaning?

Healthy aging through the conscious adoption of healthier consumption habits — with the right diet, with the right supplementation for your own. There are certain supplements that I think everyone should take. Certain ones are going to be more specific to certain groups, but being able to maintain our muscle health as we age is one that’s for everyone, boosting our metabolism and making our cells more efficient, is for everyone.

Another thing would be supporting each other. Personally, living with the purpose to help others live a healthier and happy life brings me a lot of fulfillment. At Nuritas, we are striving to make a difference. Our AI platform offers the potential to unlock plant-based, efficacious solutions to a myriad of health problems, with a success rate of up to 1,200 times that of traditional R&D, in 80% less time.

Some argue that longevity is genetic, while others say that living a long life is simply a choice. What are your thoughts on this nature vs. nurture debate? Which is more important?

We need to reflect on our consumption, especially the products we eat and use everyday. If we look at the example of food, this nature versus nurture principle hits a wall: the food industry creates a value of 10 000 bn USD, but at the same time destroys value (the equivalent of 6.6 bn USD), generating problems such as obesity or malnutrition. It’s time to make our products healthier and better for us. For decades, a product-centric focus on costs, taste and texture have left us blind-sided to the long-term impacts of the ingredients these products contain. Apart from cooler names and nicer packaging most products we buy still have ingredients that seem to do more harm than good for both us and the planet. While today’s manufacturers are aware of the importance in tackling any potential harmful effect, traditional methods of Research & Development are often lengthy, complicated and expensive. That’s where Nuritas comes in. Nature contains an abundance of hidden biomolecules which help us thrive. While these molecules have existed and evolved over millions of years, we have lacked the technology to uncover, understand and clinically prove their beneficial effects — until now. Through cutting edge precision technology, Nuritas is opening the way to a brand-new category of ingredients — Intelligent Ingredients. A new era has started : the era of consumer centric intelligent ingredients. We start with the benefits we want to deliver to consumers and bring innovation in both the way we see and unlock the ingredients of the future. Companies who work with us now can truly innovate, by replacing or elevating their product portfolios and creating the next generation of healthier, safer and greener products.

Life sometimes takes us on paths that are challenging. How have you managed to bounce back from setbacks in order to cultivate physical, mental, and emotional health?

I’m a positive person by nature. But no matter how positive you are, there are moments in life that are tough mentally and physically and it takes a lot more than positivity to pick yourself back up. For me, the answer was to always focus on the bigger goal, what needs to be achieved. Having an objective has always been the guiding point to bring me back to the reality that what is happening is a small piece of a larger puzzle and that it’ll pass. Also, what helps me is to focus on my team, I can’t let down my team by being down, I need to raise above all this and start again. This is literally what I tell myself naturally.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?

​​Mine has always been the Darwin quote “ It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.”

This is so close to me, because it literally is the case for every species on earth, much bigger than us. Realizing that communities of species that have raised to the top of the chain have all gone through this selection process and adapted to their environment. I think business is very similar: one needs to be constantly learning and adapting. If you don’t listen, you do not advance, and if you don’t adapt your solution will become obsolete.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

There are so many things I have to say here, but let’s keep it focused on what we are discussing today, the topic of health. It’s very often hard to change a lifestyle, but reducing one of your sweet snacks a day, just that one little snack among the few that you have in the day would make a massive difference in your health over time. Choose that daily one that you will not have. When I’m hungry and on the go I’ve personally replaced it with a peptide mixture, in this case I take PeptiStrongTM. It gives me the desired energy to continue my day (more than protein does), reduces those fatigue moments and I feel it improves my metabolism overall. That little change or removing one among the few snacks I have everyday, especially sweet or fatty, has helped me. A small change that can be truly effective.

What is the best way for our readers to continue to follow your work online?

You can follow the Nuritas website and LinkedIn page for the latest updates on our work.

Full article here

Source: Thrive Global