Cryptyx Bioscience has developed a drug discovery platform that activates silent biosynthetic gene clusters in microorganisms to uncover novel therapeutic metabolites without the need for complex genetic manipulation. This technology addresses the challenge of accessing a vast reservoir of untapped microbial compounds, significantly expanding the potential for new treatments against bacterial, viral, and oncological diseases.
Funding
$256K raised to dateRaised to date based on public sources. This may differ from the amount the company actually raised and is based only on what is publicly available on the internet.
Founders
Product
Problem
Many clinically used antibiotics and other medicines are derived from bacterial small molecules produced by dedicated biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). The majority of BGCs encoded in microbial genomes are transcriptionally silent or "cryptic," limiting the repertoire of accessible therapeutic molecules. Identifying the triggers that lead to the activation of these silent clusters has the potential to greatly expand the discovery of novel therapies.
Solution
Cryptyx Bioscience employs a drug discovery platform, termed Bioactivity-HiTES, that activates silent biosynthetic gene clusters in microorganisms to uncover novel therapeutic metabolites. This platform does not require complex genetic, cloning, or culturing procedures and can be used with both sequenced and unsequenced bacteria. The platform screens for elicitors of cryptic metabolites by subjecting a wild-type microorganism to elicitor screening in a high-throughput fashion, followed by screening the resulting induced metabolomes for a chosen bioactivity. Activity-guided fractionation in combination with the elicitor then allows for isolation and characterization of the cryptic metabolite. The company is currently using its technology platform to advance novel therapies for bacterial and viral pathogens and is in the process of expanding its R&D to oncology.
Target Audience
Cryptyx Bioscience partners with pharmaceutical companies through drug lead licensing, co-development of drug leads, and metabolite library purchases. The HiTES platform is also available for on-demand use on any microbe of choice.
Features
- HiTES platform enables high-throughput screening of small molecule libraries to identify elicitors of cryptic gene clusters.
- Bioactivity-HiTES links the bioactivity of cryptic metabolites to their induction, identifying cryptic metabolites with desired bioactivity.
- The platform can be applied to any microorganism to either enhance production of known natural products or induce entirely new ones.
- Identification of elicitors of silent gene clusters, the endogenous regulatory networks that lead to their induction, and the products of these clusters.
- The platform does not require complex genetic, cloning, or culturing procedures, and can be used with both sequenced and unsequenced bacteria.