Checkerspot opens new omega-7 route with scalable microalgae oil breakthrough

Checkerspot has announced a peer-reviewed breakthrough in the production of palmitoleic acid oil, reporting that it used microalgae fermentation to generate high-yield omega-7 oil at levels that could open the door to commercial-scale supply for nutrition, personal care, and food applications.

• Checkerspot announced a peer-reviewed study showing that its microalgae fermentation platform produced palmitoleic acid oil at up to 58% content, creating a new biological route to omega-7 production.
• The company reported 20.9 g/L of palmitoleic acid in 96 hours, which it said compared favorably with previously published fermentation-based research in other microbial hosts.
• The work targeted a supply bottleneck around palmitoleic acid, which has traditionally been sourced from macadamia nuts, sea buckthorn, and certain marine ingredients with scale limitations.

The study, published in Fermentation, detailed what Checkerspot described as the first demonstration of high-yield palmitoleic acid, or POA, oil production through fermentation using microalgae. The company said the work established a new biological production platform for one of the most studied omega-7 fatty acids, which until now had remained tied to a narrow set of natural sources that were difficult to scale.

John Krzywicki, CEO of Checkerspot, said the research marked a turning point for a fatty acid that had attracted increasing scientific and commercial interest but remained constrained by supply.

“This study demonstrates that microalgae fermentation can serve as a precise, scalable, and sustainable production platform for one of the most critical fatty acids in nutritional science,” he said. “For the first time, there is a credible path to bringing omega-7 benefits to a much wider range of products and people, without the constraints of existing sources.”

That supply challenge sat at the center of the company’s announcement. Palmitoleic acid is produced naturally in the human body and has drawn attention in published research for links to metabolic, cardiovascular, and skin-related health outcomes. According to the material released by Checkerspot, the scientific literature has associated POA with improved insulin sensitivity, lower hepatic lipid accumulation, modulation of inflammatory signaling, reduced LDL cholesterol, and more favorable cardiovascular risk profiles.

The company also pointed to published skin-health research, including work in the Journal Cosmetics, which linked POA to epidermal barrier function, membrane organization, and innate antimicrobial defense. Clinical trials cited by the company reported measurable improvements in skin hydration, elasticity, barrier integrity, and wrinkle parameters in subjects supplemented with POA-rich oils.

Yet despite that body of research, POA has remained a relatively constrained ingredient. The richest plant-based sources, sea buckthorn oil and macadamia nut oil, have faced agricultural and geographic limitations, along with supply variability. Fish and other marine foods have contributed lower dietary levels. In practice, that has left a gap between scientific interest in the ingredient and the ability to source it at the volumes needed for broader consumer products.

Checkerspot’s argument was that fermentation could close that gap.

In the study, the company said its researchers tailored the molecular composition of a proprietary microalgae strain to push production toward palmitoleic acid at commercially relevant efficiency. The result, according to the company, was a strain capable of producing POA-rich oil for use across dietary supplements, cosmetics and personal care, and functional food formulation.

The headline number was a reported palmitoleic acid content of up to 58%, which Checkerspot presented as evidence that its system could move the ingredient beyond niche supply. The paper also compared the company’s results with previously published studies involving engineered microbial hosts.

Among those prior examples, Checkerspot said the highest published POA productivity had been 25.6 g/L over 192 hours. Its own microalgae platform, by comparison, achieved 20.9 g/L in 96 hours. While the total yield was slightly lower, the shorter production window meant substantially higher hourly productivity, a point the company emphasized as evidence that the platform could stand up to industrial requirements.

Just as important for the company was the host itself. Checkerspot said its process used an organism already validated for industrial-scale fermentation, potentially giving it an advantage over systems that had shown promise in the lab but not yet proven themselves in commercial manufacturing environments.

That industrial angle fit squarely within Checkerspot’s broader business model. Based in Alameda, California, the company has built its platform around designing fats and oils through precision fermentation, focusing on functional lipids that are difficult or unsustainable to source from nature. It has described itself as a molecule-licensing business aiming to help partners bring healthier and more sustainable ingredients to market at relevant scale and cost.

In that context, the palmitoleic acid work looked less like a one-off technical result and more like a demonstration of the company’s wider strategy: identify a valuable lipid with supply constraints, then engineer a fermentation route that could produce it more reliably and at scale.

The timing also reflected growing interest in specialty oils and functional lipids that sit at the intersection of health, formulation, and sustainability. For formulators in supplements and beauty, a more dependable source of POA could offer an alternative to ingredients tied to limited harvests or fluctuating crop output. For food and nutrition companies, it could create room to explore omega-7 products without depending on agricultural systems that are harder to expand.

Checkerspot stopped short of announcing a product launch, but the message behind the publication was clear. The company believed it had shown a viable new route to producing omega-7 oil at a level that could support real-world commercialization.

For an ingredient long discussed in research but held back by supply, that could prove to be the more significant milestone.