The power of genetically
encoded small molecule (GEM)
drug discovery from fungi

Fungi have been a powerful source of transformational new medicines for decades, but their full potential remains untapped.

Given the evolutionary proximity of fungi to humans, drugs derived from fungi often target the same protein in humans.

Fungi are prodigious manufacturers of small molecules that engage human targets and act as “avatars” to help find small molecule therapeutic solutions for human diseases.

LifeMine has amassed the largest fully genomicized fungal strain collection in existence.

It is comprised of 100,000 deep-sequenced wild-type fungi spanning over 25,000 species, from leading pharmaceutical companies including Merck, Schering-Plough, Pfizer, Wyeth, Lederle and others.

LifeBank provides a virtually limitless amount of biological space to digitally search for new drugs.

Technological Convergence: Top-Down Drug Discovery^TM

LifeMine’s data-immersive platform integrates the latest advancements in human genetics and genomics, bioinformatics, machine learning and synthetic biology.

This convergence of technologies provides the ability to deeply mine fungal genomes for genetically encoded small molecules (GEMs). This Top-Down Drug Discovery^TM approach prioritizes a molecule’s function (vs. its chemical structure) to identify pharmacologically privileged drug leads that engage therapeutic targets in novel ways.

This represents a significant improvement in speed over “bottom-up” drug discovery which includes many complex, time-consuming steps, and is often labor and resource intensive, therefore unscalable to meet the demands of the future.

Human & Fungal Genetics

Introducing: Avatar-Rx^TM

LifeMine’s Avatar-Rx^TM platform digitally analyzes fungal DNA for biosynthetic gene clusters — an instruction set containing distinct functional components that encode specific small molecule compounds.

Embedded Target Genes (ETaGs)

Embedded Target Genes (ETaGs) within the biosynthetic gene cluster encode specialized variant copies of targets that confer drug resistance to the cluster-encoded product, acting as an “avatar” for the therapeutic target. This enables advanced prediction of what the intended molecule does, agnostic of its chemical structure.

Downstream of GEM

Downstream of GEM discovery, LifeMine’s platform further integrates chemoinformatic-assisted drug optimization and state-of-the-art chemical synthesis.

LifeMine’s multidisciplinary team utilizes biotransformation, biosynthetic engineering, semisynthesis, total synthesis and scaffold-hopping to rapidly optimize and advance new product candidates into development faster than ever before.

Genetically Encoded Small Molecules (GEMs)

Rapid, Multidisciplinary Preclinical Development

Biotransformation

Novel Precision Medicines

Avatar-Rx^TM

Avatar-Rx^TM positions LifeMine to translate advancements in human genetics into the next wave of new medicines with unprecedented actionability, predictability and scalability.

Avatar-Rx ^TM

Scalability

The platform allows for multiple parallel target searches and GEM identifications. The resulting drug candidates are ready for preclinical development in as little as 6 months – versus the multiple years associated with traditional small molecule drug discovery.

Predictability

Low failure rates, and probability of success is shifted much earlier in the discovery process – saving both time and resources.

Actionability

Our approach has the potential to accelerate and replace key stages of the “bottom-up” drug discovery process such as target selection, validation, and hit identification.
In addition, the lead optimization phase is compressed by evolutionary optimization.

LifeMine’s drug candidates are ready for preclinical development in as little as 6 months – versus the multiple years associated with traditional small molecule drug discovery approaches.

The power of genetically encoded small molecule (GEM) drug discovery from fungi

The power of genetically encoded small molecule (GEM) drug discovery from fungi

Given the evolutionary proximity of fungi to humans, drugs derived from fungi often target the same protein in humans.

Technological Convergence: Top-Down Drug DiscoveryTM

Introducing: Avatar-RxTM

Embedded Target Genes (ETaGs)

Genetically Encoded Small Molecules (GEMs)

Biotransformation

Rapid, Multidisciplinary Preclinical Development

Novel Precision Medicines

Avatar-RxTM

With the power of Avatar-RxTM, we have identified multiple high-value product opportunities poised to be turned into new medicines.

The power of genetically
encoded small molecule (GEM)
drug discovery from fungi

The power of genetically
encoded small molecule (GEM)
drug discovery from fungi

Technological Convergence: Top-Down Drug Discovery^TM

Introducing: Avatar-Rx^TM

Avatar-Rx^TM

With the power of Avatar-Rx^TM, we have identified multiple high-value product opportunities poised to be turned into new medicines.