Emerging leaders in the new discipline of
synthetic biology have raised $13 million in first-round venture
funding for the field's first commercial entity – a startup company
called Codon Devices. One of the company's backers, former Sun
Microsystems CEO Vinod Khosla, describes the young company as "the
first commercial endeavor at the intersection of post-genome biology
with high technology."
Codon Devices was
founded last year by a quartet of scientists – MIT's Drew Endy and
Joseph Jacobson, Harvard Medical School's George Church, and UC
Berkeley's Jay Keasling. The Series A round was led by Flagship
Ventures, along with Alloy Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and Khosla.
Codon
Devices – a 'codon' is the term for a triplet of DNA bases – uses a
proprietary BioFAB production platform to synthesize customized DNA
segments ranging from thousands to millions of bases. (Traditional
oligonucleotide synthesis, typically used in PCR and DNA microarray
applications, requires only a few dozen bases.) Such de novo DNA
sequences would constitute a genetic parts kit with potential
applications in areas ranging from protein optimization and
biorefineries to drug manufacture and genetic therapy.
"With
the completion of the human genome sequence and many other genome
projects, we now have a vast and growing list of biological parts with
distinct functions," says Noubar Afeyan, Codon Devices chairman, and
managing partner of Flagship Ventures. "Codon Devices' biological
engineering technologies will enable the next phase of biotechnology
with more powerful tools that permit the design and fabrication of far
more complex systems."
"Our platform enables
the engineering of biological systems with unprecedented precision and
will lead to a number of breakthrough products serving therapeutic and
industrial purposes," says CEO and Flagship partner Samir Kaul.
Transformative Technology
This
new venture in post-genome genetic engineering raises some exciting
opportunities, but brings with it some important practical and ethical
questions, given the potential to design novel organisms utilizing
genetic sequences from different species.
The
company's initial commercial focus is on providing customized genetic
parts for molecular biology research such as biosensors, as well as
engineered cells for the synthesis of therapeutic proteins and other
chemicals. Further out, the company's interests could embrace vaccines,
agricultural products and biorefineries for the production of
industrial chemicals and energy.
One example
of the near-term potential of synthetic biology is the production of a
promising anti-malarial drug. Last year, the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation awarded $43 million to the OneWorld Health Institute to
apply co-founder Keasling's synthetic biology methods to produce
artemisinin, a naturally occurring compound extracted from wormwood
plants. Keasling's group is identifying the key plant genes required
for artemisinin synthesis, which could be stitched into bacterial to
greatly ease the drug's manufacture.
Eventually,
scientists hope to stitch together combinations of gene cassettes with
specific functions in order to design bespoke drugs and organisms. "I
think if we pull it off, it changes everything to do with our
interaction with the living world," says Endy. "We'll see if it works."
At MIT, Endy and his colleagues have
already built some 500 "biobricks" – genetic building blocks composed
of short DNA segments, akin to resistors and capacitors in electronic
circuits (see http://parts.mit.edu). "I want to be able to design and build biological systems to perform particular applications," Endy told The Guardian earlier this year. "The scope of material I can work with is not limited to the set of things that we inherit from nature."
Talent Pool
Codon
Devices is supported by a formidable pool of talent from a
cross-section of engineering and biological fields. Joining the board
of directors is Alloy Ventures' general partner Michael Hunkapiller.
"Having led one of the foremost technology suppliers to the academic
and industrial biotechnology labs [Applied Biosystems], I am excited to
be involved with the next transformative technology in our industry,"
says Hunkapiller. "Codon Devices was an attractive investment for us
because it combines breakthrough technology, strong intellectual
property, large commercial markets and a group of outstanding
scientific founders."
In addition to the
four cofounders, the scientific advisory board boasts a wide range of
expertise, including structural biologist David Baker (Howard Hughes
Medical Institute investigator, University of Washington); biomedical
engineer Jim Collins (Boston University); molecular geneticist Paul
Modrich (Duke University); chemical engineer Christina Smolke
(Caltech); and electrical engineer Ron Weiss (Princeton University).