Overall Concept

Evolva has a distinctive technology platform, falling under the general heading of synthetic biology. We use biosynthetic and evolutionary technologies to artificially create and optimise small molecule compounds and their production routes. Our approach differs from that of the mainstream in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries and can be applied across a broad range of industries.

Many of the world’s most important drugs (statins, most antibiotics, aspirin, taxol, etc.) and other compounds (food ingredients, fragrances, lubricants, agrochemicals, etc.) have their origins in biosynthesis. The properties of such biosynthetic compounds are different from – and sometimes superior to – compounds originating from synthetic chemistry.

Until recently, the only way to obtain many of these compounds has been through conventional “bio-prospecting” from nature, followed by production using either chemical synthesis or farming. However such approaches have run into increasing difficulties in recent years:

• In terms of discovering new compounds the easy natural sources have become “tapped out” (to use an analogy with the oil industry). This has pushed up the costs and risks of discovery and the approach has been de-emphasised by most large companies – leaving a valuable and diverse chemistry space largely untapped.
• Existing production methods often produce sub-optimal end products in terms of yield, purity or other properties. Production from petrochemicals has come under pressure from the desire of economies and consumers to use more sustainable resources, whilst farming has run into land use issues – converting land away from food production or other uses to produce chemicals is problematic and likely to become increasingly so.

However advances in molecular biology and related disciplines allow new approaches to these problems to be deployed. Just as molecular biology has, over the last 20 years, revolutionised certain sectors of the pharmaceutical and diagnostic industries, so synthetic biology can revolutionise those industries that depend on small molecule chemistry in the future.

Evolva aims to be one of the leading companies in this emerging field.

Explain more about the Technical Implementation.