Mucus is the body's first line of defense
Why mucus matters
The mucus barrier is a protective gel that lines all mucosal surfaces, including the vaginal tract, eyes, mouth, lungs, and gut, where it serves many essential functions to preserve health:
- Essential Protection — Mucus shields tissues from infection, friction, dehydration, and chemical stress.
- Smart Selectivity — Its complex sugar chains (glycans) interact with microbes and molecules, letting good bacteria thrive while blocking pathogens.
- Dynamic & Responsive — Natural mucus adapts to changes in pH, hydration, and immune state.
When this barrier fails — through aging, infection, inflammation, or medical interventions — tissues become vulnerable, fueling chronic conditions and discomfort.
Women’s health innovation has lagged
Our platform launches in women’s health—where unmet need is greatest and the scientific rationale for barrier-based intervention is strongest. Historically underfunded and underserved, intimate and mucosal health is now poised for major scientific and commercial breakthroughs.
- Recurrent vaginal infections remain unsolved. Up to 50% of women with BV relapse after standard antibiotic treatment.
- Menopause disrupts natural barriers. Vaginal dryness and discomfort affect more than half of postmenopausal women, yet many current solutions are unphysiological or microbiome-disruptive.
- Mucosal health drives whole-body wellness. Barrier breakdown in the eyes, lung, gut, and oral cavity contributes to chronic inflammation, infection, and discomfort.
- Antibiotic resistance is accelerating. New non-antibiotic solutions are urgently needed to reduce overuse and preserve healthy microbial ecosystems.
Our Solution: Rebuilding the barrier
Tulip Biosciences re-engineers nature’s protective mucus coating into safe, stable materials that support vulnerable tissues.
Natural mucus is built from mucins, large proteins covered in complex sugar chains that block harmful microbes, hold moisture, and keep delicate surfaces comfortable. We’ve identified the key “active ingredients” of mucins and rebuilt them as synthetic mucin-mimetic glycopolymers — long, flexible molecules that can stick to and protect mucosal tissue, balance pH, and support a healthy microbiome.
These engineered materials let us restore the body’s first line of defense in places where it breaks down, from the vagina to the eyes, gut, and beyond, creating a new class of antibiotic-sparing, barrier-restoring therapies.