Enzyme Developer In-Licenses Synthetic Biology Technology

(MorphoSys AG)

Novozymes A/S in Bagsvaerd, Denmark has agreed to license genetic engineering technology from MorphoSys AG in Martinsried, Germany for the development of industrial biotechnology products. The multi-year agreement provides Novozymes, a manufacturer of industrial enzymes, with a non-exclusive license to use MorphoSys’s Slonomics technology. Financial and more precise timetable details of the deal were not dislosed.

Slonomics is a robotics-based genetic engineering platform developed by MorphoSys that uses sets of double stranded DNA components to make different types of combinatorial gene libraries. These libraries make it possible for researchers to increase their success rate to screen for new and enhanced proteins, industrial enzymes, or therapeutic antibodies.

The ability of Slonomics to generate the precise composition of enzymes overcomes a barrier faced by enzyme developers in combining amino acids — the basic building blocks of enzymes — to find the best collection to perform a specific task, such as a stain-removing additive in laundry detergent. Combining natural amino acids often produces millions of unwanted chemical variants that need to be screened out.

The Slonomics technology, says MorphoSys, makes it possible to combine the building blocks in exactly the preferred order and properties. Researchers can thus create only the desired set of enzyme variations, eliminating all the undesired combinations. Novozymes says its researchers can typically reduce the number of variants from millions using its current technology to some 10,000 with Slonomics.

According to Morphsys, Novozymes becomes the first industrial biotech company to have access to Slonomics technology. “The Slonomics toolbox will enable a reduction in our discovery times,” says Ejner Bech Jensen, Novozymes vice-president for research & development. “This means we can bring new innovation to the market faster and we can take on more development projects.”

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