The Oxford Ketone Ester developed by T△S to achieve new heights of human performance in extreme conditions.

Our Mission

T△S Global’s mission is to enhance human performance, cognitive function, and general health. Global’s revolutionary ketone ester, deltaG®, was developed over many years in a collaboration between the University of Oxford and the National Institutes of Health. Unique in its potency, deltaG® maximizes ketone levels in the blood, providing a powerful energy source to augment other dietary fuels.

Developed and manufactured at GMP standards, deltaG® joins the three main dietary macronutrients – proteins, carbohydrates and fats – as a totally new nutritional category: Exogenous Ketones. The Oxford Ketone Ester, deltaG®, has been used by high-performing individuals to achieve new milestones in human performance. T△S Global is making deltaG® available to everyone through our △G® Ketone Performance and △H® Ketone Health drinks.

T△S® Ltd and its first two products, △G® Ketone Performance and △H® Ketone Health, were named after the thermodynamic equation for Gibbs free energy, △Gº = △Hº - T△Sº, which defines the energy available to perform work at constant temperature and pressure.

History of deltaG®

Professor Kieran Clarke, University of Oxford

Doctor Joe Bielitzki, Program Director, DARPA Defense Science Office (2002 - 2005)

Doctor Richard Veech†, National Institutes of Health

The pioneering scientific research that led to the exogenous ketone drink, deltaG®, began in 2003 when Dr Joe Bielitzki, a program director in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA*), elite Defense Science Office (DSO**), initiated the Metabolic Dominance program. The aim of the program was to discover a novel, energetically efficient food that would allow soldiers to maintain their physical and mental performance over five days on a battlefield. In response to DARPA’s call for proposals, Professor Kieran Clarke at the University of Oxford and the late Doctor Richard Veech at the National Institutes of Health applied for funding for a project that initially required $10 million.

In 1993, the Oxford and NIH research groups started collaborating on endogenous ketone projects. Ten years later, they proposed to invent an exogenous ketone food group for DARPA: an invention that took many years of research and many meetings with the FDA. Their research resulted in deltaG®, The Oxford Ketone Ester, that enables humans to reach new performance heights under extreme conditions.

In 2005, Professor Kieran Clarke founded the UK-based University of Oxford spinout, T△S® Ltd, to house deltaG® patents and trademarks, and to commercialize deltaG® worldwide. A research company, T△S® also studies the effects of deltaG® on human physical and cognitive performance, metabolism and health. Prof. Clarke is the Chairman and CEO of T△S®, which is currently manufacturing deltaG® in the UK for export to the US.

In the first quarter of 2020, TΔS® launched TΔS Global, a US subsidiary that will develop products containing deltaG® for the US consumer. Global is based in Orlando, Florida, adjacent to elite tennis and golf training facilities, centers-of-excellence for human performance, numerous professional and college sports institutions, NASA, the US Special Operations Command, and the major research hub for DoD simulation technologies.

† Deceased
*DARPA is the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.
**The DSO, or “DARPA’s DARPA”, is tasked with identifying and developing the most potentially impactful technologies.

PURE SCIENCE

The Founder: Professor Kieran Clarke

A mix of biochemist, physiologist and entrepreneur.

Born in Adelaide, South Australia, Kieran Clarke studied for her undergraduate BSc (Hons) in Biological Sciences at Flinders University. She obtained her PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Queensland before taking a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University Medical School Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Laboratory between 1985 and 1989. After Harvard, Prof. Clarke was appointed Group Leader for the National Research Council of Canada and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Physiology at Ottawa University in Canada. In 1991, she joined the University of Oxford as Professor of Physiological Biochemistry and Head of the Cardiac Metabolism Research Groups in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics. She has over 25 years research experience in magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and spectroscopy to non-invasively measure human cardiac, brain and skeletal muscle function and energy metabolism.

Timeline

Awarded a $10 million DARPA grant to develop a novel food for soldiers that would decrease muscle fatigue and improve physical and mental performance over 5 days of continuous battle conditions. We proposed to invent and develop an efficient fuel for the brain and body, a dietary ketone precursor that would raise blood ketone levels within minutes and keep them raised for hours.
We established that the simple acid or salt forms of beta-hydroxybutyrate, as sold by chemical companies, were not suitable due to their cost and the detrimental effects of large quantities of acid or salt on the body. We also realised that the chirality of beta-hydroxybutyrate may be important and that the d-isoform, the only form that can be metabolised for energy in humans and the only form found in human blood, should be used. The l-isoform, as used in ketone salts, could even be detrimental by inhibiting the beneficial effects of the d-isoform.
Worked with chemists in Stuttgart, Leeds, York and Oxford to synthesise ketone precursors in order to see if they increased circulating ketone levels. Scientists in the Chemistry Department at the University of Oxford synthesized ketone esters; one of these molecules, a ketone monoester that we called deltaG, was found to increase blood d-beta-hydroxybutyrate levels in rats from below 0.1 mM to over 10 mM.
Developed a novel manufacturing method to produce deltaG® in the basement of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford at a rate of 2 kg/week and a cost of £2,000/kg.
Demonstrated that deltaG increased physical performance and cognitive function in rats by 33% every day for 5 days, a finding that convinced DARPA’s elite Defense Science Office (DSO) to extend funding to human studies. Our first paper, entitled “Novel ketone diet enhances physical and cognitive performance” was published in the FASEB J 2016; 30: 2689-97 doi: 10.1096/fj.201600773R.
Another of our rat studies demonstrated that a diet, in which 33% of the calories came from deltaG, was safe and well-tolerated for 28 days. This study also showed that deltaG can decrease hunger. The published study, entitled “Oral 28-day and developmental toxicity studies of (R)-3-hydroxybutyl (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate” can be found in Regul Toxicol Pharmacol 2012 63: 196-208. doi: 10.1016/j.yrtph.2012.04.001.
Obtained a generally recognized as safe (GRAS) opinion and notified the FDA that our ketone monoester, deltaG®, was a food that had a calorie content of 4.9 kcal/g (similar to that of glucose).
Formulated and tested a milkshake drink in humans. Found that deltaG® has a reasonable taste in chocolate or coffee-flavoured drinks.
Initial dosage/safety studies showed that 3 deltaG® drinks a day for 5 days was well-tolerated and had no adverse effects in humans. The published study, entitled “Kinetics, safety and tolerability of (R)-3-hydroxybutyl (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate in healthy adult subjects” was published in Regul Toxicol Pharmacol. 2012; 63:401-408. doi:10.1016/j.yrtph.2012.04.008
Licenced 13 ketone patents from BTG International Ltd and 6 ketone patents from Oxford University Innovation Ltd.
Confirmed with WADA that deltaG, being similar to glucose, is not banned for athletes. Worked with UK Sport on human physical performance studies in elite rowers that resulted in 1 world record, 6 personal bests and 10 season bests.
Awarded a grant from the UK Ministry of Defence's Centre for Defence Enterprise to determine whether deltaG prevented cognitive dysfunction during extreme exercise (mimicking battlefield conditions) in athletes. We found that participants consistently demonstrated a more conservative approach to risk taking, with greater accuracy and fewer errors.
Found that a deltaG diet decreased anxiety in rats – a study that was published in a paper entitled “A ketone ester diet exhibits anxiolytic and cognition-sparing properties” in Neurobiol Aging. 2013; 34: 1530-1539 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2012.11.023.
Worked on another Centre for Defence Enterprise grant to demonstrate that deltaG® increased glycogen recovery following exhausting exercise in athletes. This study was published in a paper entitled “A ketone ester drink increases post-exercise muscle glycogen synthesis in humans.” Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2017; 49: 1789 DOI:10.1249/MSS. 0000000000001292
Published five studies showing how deltaG is metabolized in elite athletes in a paper entitled “Nutritional ketosis alters fuel preference and thereby endurance performance in athletes” in Cell Metab. 2016; 24: 256-268. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2016.07.010.
Licensed deltaG in the US to sell in sports drinks. Worked with a GMP-registered, FDA-approved company in the north of England to scale-up deltaG production with high chemical and high chiral purity. Started manufacturing 3 tons of high-quality deltaG.
HVMN becomes an exclusive licensee under TdeltaS’s U.S. patents.
Published further studies demonstrating how deltaG is metabolised and how deltaG supports rejuvenation in humans. For example: “On the metabolism of exogenous ketones in humans.” Front Physiol 2017; 8: 848 doi:10.3389/fphys. 2017.00848 and “Ketone bodies mimic the life span extending properties of caloric restriction.” IUBMB Life 2017; 69:305-314 doi: 10.1002/iub.1627.
Licensed deltaG in the US to sell in sports drinks. Worked with a GMP-registered, FDA-approved company in the north of England to scale-up deltaG production with high chemical and high chiral purity. Started manufacturing 3 tons of high-quality deltaG.
Reported on the mechanisms whereby deltaG decreases hunger and lowers the glycaemic response to a glucose load in healthy humans in two papers: “A ketone ester drink lowers human ghrelin and appetite” in Obesity 2018; 26:269-273. doi: 10.1002 and “Prior ingestion of exogenous ketone monoester attenuates the glycaemic response to an oral glucose tolerance test in healthy young individuals” in J Physiol 2018; 596: 1385–1395 doi: 10.1113/JP275709.
Official launch of HVMN Ketone Ester drinks, which contained TΔS’s patented deltaG® ketone ester manufactured by TΔS® . HVMN’s license has since ended (see 2020).
Published scientific research papers on the safety of 3 drinks deltaG/day for a month: Safety and tolerability of sustained exogenous ketosis using ketone monoester drinks for 28 days in healthy adults. Regul Toxicol Pharmacol 2019; 109:104506 doi: 10.1016/j.yrtph.2019.104506. Plus, their tolerability: On the metabolism of exogenous ketones in humans. Front Physiol 2017; 8: 848 doi: 10.3389/fphys.2017.00848. The effects of G® on over training in athletes is published: Ketone ester supplementation blunts overreaching symptoms during endurance training overload. J Physiol 2019; 597: 3009–3027 doi: 10.1113/JP277831.
The UK company, TdeltaS Ltd, started a subsidiary company, TdeltaS Global Inc. in the USA. Global’s mission was to commercialise a portfolio of branded deltaG-based human performance and health products and to support deltaG technology with propriety applications and consumer insights. Two initial SKUs, ΔG and ΔH, contain 25 g and 10 g deltaG, respectively.
Another research paper reporting that deltaG supports rejuvenation in healthy humans was published in PNAS. It was entitled “Diet modulates brain network stability, a biomarker for brain aging, in young adults” and can be found at http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1913042117.
HVMN is no longer licensed to sell HVMN Ketone Ester drinks containing TΔS’s patented ketone ester. TΔS Global is now the only licensed source of TΔS’s Oxford Ketone Ester, deltaG®.

The Future

At T△S Global, we will continue to develop science-based proprietary ketone products as food supplements for the benefit of human performance and health.