Rewriting the molecular foundations of life
For 4 billion years, every living thing on Earth has been built from the same 20 amino acids. We've broken that constraint. What comes next changes everything.
The constraint
Biology has been working with a limited alphabet
Every protein in every organism that has ever lived, from the first bacteria to the human brain, has been assembled from the same set of 20 amino acids. It's a remarkable toolkit, but it's still a constraint.
Chemists have long known that molecules with different properties are possible. The problem was making them at scale, reliably, sustainably. Chemical synthesis works in the lab but struggles in the factory. Biology scales beautifully but couldn't access the chemistry.
We solved that problem.
By rewriting the genetic code itself, we've created living cells that manufacture molecules nature never could. Not through brute-force chemistry, but through the elegant, scalable machinery of life.
The industries this unlocks
When you can program cells to build molecules with properties that were previously impossible, you don't just improve existing products. You create categories that didn't exist.
Medicine that was impossible yesterday
Therapeutics today are constrained by biology's limitations. Peptide drugs degrade in hours. Antibodies can't carry payloads precisely. Proteins trigger immune responses.
With an expanded genetic code, we can build:
- →Drugs that remain stable for weeks, not hours
- →ADCs with exact, reproducible payloads
- →Therapeutics that evade the immune system
- →Treatments for the currently undruggable
Materials that don't cost the earth
The materials that define modern life, including plastics, polymers, and functional coatings, are overwhelmingly derived from petroleum through energy-intensive processes. The environmental cost is enormous.
Biology offers another path:
- →Growing materials in fermentation tanks
- →Sugar as feedstock, water as byproduct
- →Biodegradable with petroleum-grade performance
- →High-value molecules at industrial scale
A new foundation for manufacturing
Chemical manufacturing is a 20th-century paradigm: high temperatures, toxic solvents, complex purification, enormous capital costs, and processes that don't scale gracefully.
Biological manufacturing inverts this:
- →Sustainable manufacturing that can help heal the planet
- →Sequence encoded in DNA, built by the central dogma
- →Existing infrastructure, new capabilities
- →The missing piece was chemistry. We've added it.
The convergence that makes this the moment
This vision isn't new. What's changed is that it's now possible: reliably, at scale, commercially.
The science matured
The foundational work on genetic code expansion, pioneered at MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, has reached the point where we can incorporate hundreds of non-canonical amino acids with high fidelity. Syn61, the world's first organism with a fully synthetic, radically recoded genome, proved that wholesale rewriting of the genetic code is achievable.
The infrastructure exists
Industrial fermentation is a proven, global capability. The tanks, the expertise, the supply chains: they're already in place. We're not asking the world to build new factories. We're giving existing infrastructure new capabilities.
The demand is exploding
The peptide therapeutics market is projected to double to over $100 billion by 2030. The GLP-1 drugs alone represent one of the largest pharmaceutical opportunities in history. Existing manufacturing cannot keep pace. The world needs a new approach.
Building the future in stages
Audacious visions are achieved through disciplined execution. Here's how we're getting there.
Peptide therapeutics
Our BioForge platform is manufacturing peptide therapeutics containing non-canonical amino acids: molecules that couldn't be made reliably at scale before. We're working with partners to bring the next generation of medicines to patients.
Expanded modalities
Antibody-drug conjugates with precise, site-specific payloads. Covalent biologics with extended duration. Novel protein formats with properties impossible to achieve through traditional methods.
Beyond therapeutics
The same platform that builds better medicines can build better materials. Functional polymers. Sustainable replacements for petroleum-derived products. Applications we haven't yet imagined, because the chemistry to enable them didn't exist until now.
Life, reimagined
We didn't start a company to make incremental improvements
We started because we believe the ability to program living cells to manufacture molecules with expanded chemistry is one of the most consequential capabilities humanity has developed.
The applications in medicine are clear and immediate. The applications beyond medicine, in materials, in manufacturing, in industries that don't yet exist, are limited only by imagination and execution.
We're building the platform. The possibilities are just beginning.
Join us in building what comes next
Whether as a partner, collaborator, or team member.