A large proportion of modern drugs are derived from “natural products” (NPs) made by plants and microbes. The microbial domain comprises 90% of all natural diversity; however, less than 1% of the organism have been cultivated1 , so vast numbers of novel bioactive molecules await discovery. These compounds are much more complex than can easily be created with synthetic chemistry. The Demuris ACCESS system and other proprietary genomic methods enables the company to revolutionise the discovery of novel NP molecules and manipulate them to turn them into drugs.
Demuris also owns one of the world’s most valuable collections of actinomycete bacteria – probably the richest source of NP-based drugs. This collection has already provided a wide range of drug discovery projects, as well as underpinning a powerful Synthetic Biology tool box for making new and improved NP analogues for drug development.
Demuris intends to revolutionise drug discovery for many of the most intractable diseases facing humans.
1 Lahlou M: The Success of Natural Products in Drug Discovery. Pharmacol Pharm. 4:17–31. 2013.