A New Drug Discovery Paradigm: From Screening to Searching

In late December 2021, the James Webb telescope was launched from Kourou, French Guiana. As described by NASA, the Webb telescope "will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it."¹ It is an amazing achievement that has required advances in multiple technologies-as well as flawless execution-to bring about.

While this fascinating story is playing out hundreds of thousands of miles "above" us², Zymergen has been undertaking a similar voyage of discovery to explore the galaxies of information below our feet. The number of microbial cells right here on earth exceeds the number of stars in the universe. The vast majority of microbial species have never been explored by science-or even grown in the lab-but encoded in each of their genomes is a wealth of genetic information. Of particular interest to Zymergen are groups of genes that encode molecules, sometimes called "natural products", that have evolved to have highly diverse structures and to interact with proteins of all kinds. While our platform will stop short of solving the "origins of our universe and our place in it," by accessing this reservoir of diverse novel chemistry, we believe we have a tool to develop drugs for diseases and targets that have stymied existing practices.

Last week at the 40th annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, Zymergen announced our new Drug Discovery business that leverages what is believed to be the world's most advanced metagenomic database, our synthetic biology expertise, and proprietary data science and informatics tools.

Metagenomics: An untapped universe of chemical diversity

The two main "tools" in the therapeutic arsenal for the last three decades have been synthetic small molecules and monoclonal antibodies. While they have given us many needed drugs, they are notable for their drawbacks: Synthetic small molecules are frequently unable to engage challenging therapeutic targets, while monoclonals are restricted to the exterior of the cell. Consequently, many intracellular targets are today regarded as "undruggable" in the industry.

While new tools such as cell therapies are thankfully emerging, diverse, novel chemistry remains a throughline for drugging challenging intracellular targets. Small molecule modulators, protein degraders and antibody-drug conjugates to name a few, all rely on the right chemistry to be successful. Our metagenomics platform is one such source. By revealing the gene clusters that encode the wealth of novel, diverse molecules encoded in microbial genomes, our metagenomics platform has potential to enable the next generation of novel therapeutics.