PumpKin

In today's fast-paced world, many mothers face the challenge of returning to work after having a baby. This poses a significant hurdle for those who wish to provide their infants with the valuable benefits of breastmilk. Nursing mothers rely on breast pumps to enable the acquisition of expressed milk, which can be stored in disposable freezer bags to thaw for use at later dates. Current commercially available freezers in most homes do not adequately preserve the complex structure of human milk, and as a result, thawed human milk is frequently rancid, leading to it being rejected by infants. Pumpkin, developed in the Department of Molecular Biology, is a dissolvable tablet that can be easily added to breastmilk prior to freezing. By acting as a milk conditioner, the tablet ensures that frozen breastmilk maintains the same nutritional fats, essential nutrients, proteins, and taste that it had at the time of expression. This provides peace of mind for mom and the best nutrition for baby.