In 1997, Dr Wallace Bridge, an expert in bioprocessing who was working for one of the world’s leading manufacturers of baker's yeast developed an interest in exploring the world of glutathione.

Glutathione was, at the time, a somewhat under the radar product in the burgeoning nutritional field of antioxidants. It was widely viewed then, and continues to be believed now that any compound that could elevate cellular glutathione levels could have broad therapeutic potential especially if this could be accomplished within hours.*

It was well known that glutathione is synthesized by the cells in two sequential steps catalyzed by two separate enzymes. The first enzyme forms the dipeptide gamma-glutamylcysteine (GGC) and the second enzyme adds glycine to GGC to produce the tripeptide glutathione. An early paper by Dr Anton Meister (1983) had provided some evidence that the provision of GGC to cells could elevate their glutathione levels. Wallace wanted to explore GGC's potential but found that it was not commercially available. To address this, he and his PhD student Martin Zarka set about inventing a process to synthesize this glutathione precursor, which led to the production of the ingredient Glyteine^®.