Latest News
- March 25, 2008
Codexis Names David Anton VP Bioindustrials R&D - January 23, 2008
Codexis Opens Budapest Laboratory - August 29, 2007
Codexis Licenses New Drug Metabolite Profiling and Lead Diversification Technology from The California Institute of Technology - February 20, 2007
Codexis Advances Proprietary Directed Evolution Platform; Custom Biocatalyst Provides 4000-Fold Productivity Increase Over Natural Enzyme
Codexis evolves enzymes for use in improving chemical manufacturing processes. Enzymes exist throughout nature and some have been used as biocatalysts Close
Biocatalyst or Biological CatalystA catalyst derived from a living organism. Enzymes and fermentation strains are common biocatalysts. Biocatalysts significantly speed chemical reactions.to enable new, more efficient manufacturing processes, ranging from the manufacture of antibiotics to the production of monomers CloseMonomerA single molecule that may combine with identical or similar molecules into a polymerfor use in plastics. Compared with chemical processing methods, enzyme-based methods are often faster, cleaner, and more efficient. Enzymes are highly selective catalysts, creating products of exceptional purity. The difficulty is that it is not always possible to find enzymes in nature that are suited to catalyzing a specific chemical reaction. That’s where Codexis’ proprietary technology comes in.
How Codexis Improves Chemical Processes
How Our Technology Works
Codexis’ technology makes it possible to customize “super” enzymes capable of selectively and efficiently performing a desired chemical process. This technology, referred to as DNA shuffling,CloseDNA ShufflingA research technique that takes select genes or gene variants and then recombines or “shuffles” the DNA to create new hybrid genes. The resulting gene library is then screened for novel biocatalysts that possess desired properties. is part of a directed evolution program to manipulate the DNA blueprint of an enzyme.CloseEnzymeProteins that act as catalysts, or biocatalysts, in living organisms. Starting with a diverse set of genes that encode for variations of the enzyme catalyst, Codexis recombines, or shuffles these DNA sequences to create new variants. Using sophisticated high-throughput screening methods, novel biocatalysts with desired improvements are selected and these improved variants can then be put through the process again until a highly efficient biocatalyst is created that meets or exceeds targeted performance characteristics.
Broad Applicability
Chemical processes using Codexis biocatalysts have broad applicability in a number of industries. Codexis is currently focused on developing these processes for the pharmaceutical and bioindustrial applications.
In the pharmaceutical area, many of the processes that Codexis develops are for the production of chirally pure intermediates. Processes developed by Codexis have been used to make chiral CloseChiralA chiral molecule is asymmetric, it cannot be superimposed on its mirror image. Many chemicals important to life are chiral. The US FDA requires that the two mirror image forms (‘enantiomers’) of a chiral compound be treated as different products that must be tested separately. Consequently, there has been extensive research into developing methods for making one or the other of the enantiomers – in other words, making the molecule chirally pure.alcohols, esters, amides, nitriles, aldehydes, and epoxides.
Chirality is important to many pharmaceutical manufacturers, because it can potentially improve therapeutic profiles, including product safety and efficacy. It can also help extend a product’s life cycle by switching a drug from a racemic CloseRacemer (racemic)A chemical mixture where both enantiomers of the molecule are present in equal amountsto a single-enantiomer (i.e., chirally pure) formulation.