Externa Biosciences provides a genetic‑code‑expansion platform that enables site‑specific incorporation of over 200 synthetic amino acids into proteins of any size using engineered orthogonal tRNA/synthetase pairs in optimized E. coli and CHO host strains. The service delivers custom plasmid libraries, validated expression protocols, and automated LC‑MS/MS analysis, achieving >95 % incorporation efficiency for both research and production scales.
Funding
Funding not disclosed
Founders
Product
Problem
Researchers and biopharma developers lack a reliable method to embed non‑canonical amino acids into proteins at scale, limiting the ability to engineer novel functionalities, improve stability, or create new therapeutic modalities. Existing techniques are often protein‑size constrained, low‑efficiency, or require extensive re‑engineering of host organisms.
Solution
Externa Biosciences offers a genetic‑code‑expansion platform that delivers site‑specific incorporation of any synthetic amino acid into proteins of arbitrary length. The platform combines engineered orthogonal tRNA/synthetase pairs with optimized host strains to achieve >95 % incorporation efficiency across bacterial and mammalian expression systems. Clients receive a turnkey workflow: custom plasmid libraries, validated expression protocols, and analytical pipelines (LC‑MS/MS, NMR) to confirm incorporation and functionality. The service can be licensed for in‑house use or accessed via a managed partnership model, allowing research teams to rapidly prototype and scale novel biologics without building the underlying translation machinery themselves. Integration with standard cloning workflows and compatibility with common purification pipelines minimize disruption to existing R&D processes.
Target Audience
Primary customers are biotech R&D laboratories, protein‑engineering groups, and pharmaceutical companies developing next‑generation biologics that require non‑natural amino acid functionalities. The platform also serves academic research teams focused on synthetic biology and enzyme redesign.
Features
- Orthogonal translation system (OTS) engineered for high‑fidelity incorporation of >200 synthetic amino acids
- Host‑strain optimization for both E. coli and CHO cells, supporting proteins from <10 kDa to >200 kDa
- Modular plasmid toolkit with interchangeable amber‑codon sites and promoter libraries for rapid construct design
- Automated analytical suite (high‑resolution LC‑MS/MS, peptide mapping) that quantifies incorporation efficiency and site‑specificity
- Scalable production protocol enabling gram‑scale expression with consistent yields and low off‑target misincorporation
- API and data export formats compatible with ELN, LIMS, and downstream bio‑informatics pipelines
- Technical support and custom engineering services for assay development, stability testing, and functional validation