Synthetic Protein Design and Production Publication Confirms Evozyne's Revolutionary Technology

CHICAGO, July 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A publication released in the peer-review journal Science today demonstrates the foundation of Evozyne's evolution-based, data-driven engineering process for building artificial functional enzymes. Founded by life science innovator Paragon Biosciences, Evozyne, a privately held molecular engineering technology company, is focused on creating novel proteins to facilitate innovation and growth across multiple industries.

"This publication demonstrates that mining genomic data guided by machine learning, which is the underlying approach of Evozyne, can lead to powerful design models that can rapidly generate effective solutions for key societal challenges," said Rama Ranganathan, M.D., Ph.D., co-founder and chief scientific officer of Evozyne, and primary author of the paper. "We were able to focus the design model towards function in a specific genomic context and show that sequence-based statistical models are sufficient to specify proteins and provide access to an enormous space of new, unexplored functional sequences. This is a major advance in life science and materials research that has the potential to enable innovation and growth across all aspects of human life."

The Science paper - "An evolution-based model for designing chorismate mutase enzymes" - describes a process to identify nature's design rules for specifying proteins purely from evolutionary sequence data and apply those rules using new advanced engineering technologies to build libraries of synthetic molecules. Using this approach, Dr. Ranganathan and his team then tested the designed molecules for activity in vivo, in their natural biological context. For chorismate mutase, a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids, the results demonstrated natural-like enzyme function with substantial sequence diversity.

Applying this technology, Evozyne can create novel proteins to address fundamental challenges, such as climate change and clean energy, by:

• Creating a biological hydrogen fuel cell by splitting water;
• Building a synthetic enzyme that converts carbon to energy; and
• Developing a bio-based battery.

"Through its novel application of synthetic biology, Evozyne is addressing human and societal challenges in ways that were previously unimaginable," said Jeff Aronin, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Paragon Biosciences. "At Paragon, we create and support focused visionary companies, like Evozyne, to accelerate life science innovations."

Evozyne, a Chicago-based company, has assembled a strong technical team, attracting remarkable talent from life science hubs throughout the country. The company looks to expand soon to continue its important work.

About Data-Driven Molecular Engineering Technology

Evozyne is creating novel proteins with exceptionally advanced functionality. Through computational modeling, gene synthesis and high-throughput assays, Evozyne learns from evolution and rationally searches a vast design space to generate a pipeline of synthetic proteins with desired functionality. These proteins are developed specifically to meet a need, with applications across a variety of industries including agricultural, biopharmaceutical, industrial, energy, and environmental. 

Synthetic proteins developed with Evozyne's technology could be used to:

• Increasing the nutritional value of food, along with its shelf life, resulting in better food and less waste;
• Delivering a drug therapy in a more targeted way to reduce side effects in patients;
• Metabolizing and/or converting hazardous chemicals from wastewater and landfills;
• Dramatically improving efficiency of capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and converting it to usable energy; and
• Efficiently convert agricultural waste to high-value, high-quality biomaterials (e.g., bioplastics, bio-nylon).

About Evozyne
At Evozyne, we are passionate about solving problems, from molecular scale to global. Our mission is to unlock the potential of novel proteins to solve complex human and societal challenges by revolutionizing protein design. By combining computational modeling, artificial intelligence/deep learning, and science informed by the laws of nature, we create novel, uniquely functioning proteins with previously unachievable precision and efficiency. For more information, visit https://evozyne.com/.

About Paragon Biosciences
Paragon is a life science innovator that creates, invests in and builds life science companies in artificial intelligence, cell and gene therapy, synthetic biology and biopharmaceuticals. Our current portfolio includes Castle Creek Biosciences, Emalex Biosciences, Evozyne, Harmony Biosciences, Qlarity Imaging, Skyline Biosciences, and a consistent flow of incubating companies created and supported by our replicable Paragon Innovation Capital™ model. Paragon stands at the intersection of human need, life science, and company creation. For more information, please visit https://paragonbiosci.com/.

Media Contact: 
Adam Daley
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SOURCE Evozyne