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Combating disease with cryptic metabolites

The Cryptyx Bioscience drug discovery platform provides a rapid, efficient approach for activating silent biosynthetic gene clusters and unearthing potential leads that cannot be accessed with extant technologies.

We develop novel disease therapies

Medicines (pills, capsules, powders)

Many clinically used antibiotics and other medicines are derived from bacterial small molecules produced by dedicated biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). Recent investigations, however, have shown that these are the tip of the iceberg and that the majority of BGCs encoded in microbial genomes are transcriptionally silent or "cryptic." Identifying the triggers that lead to activation of these silent clusters has the potential to greatly expand our repertoire of therapeutic molecules.

Unlike nearly all existing methods developed to activate silent BGCs, our platform does not require complex genetic, cloning, or culturing procedures, can be used with both sequenced and unsequenced bacteria, and reliably reports on the bioactivity of the cryptic metabolite. We are currently using our technology platform to advance novel therapies for bacterial and viral pathogens and are in the process of expanding our R&D to oncology.

Bacteria containing biosynthetic gene clusters that produce metabolites used to produce antibiotics and other medicines
Partnerships

Leverage our platform

We offer several ways for clients to work with us and our platform to bring cryptic metabolite drug leads to market.

Bacterial small molecule available for out-licensing

Drug leads licensing

We have IP around hundreds of novel metabolites with a broad range of biological activities. We make these microbially produced, bacterial small molecules available for out-licensing purposes.

Cryptyx Bioscience researcher developing drug leads toward clinical trials

Cryptyx-developed drug leads

We develop drug leads toward clinical trials. Our discovery platform can be adapted to any drug target and we are currently tackling several disease areas including bacterial and viral pathogens and oncology.

Researcher examining bacterial growth

Metabolite library purchase

Biochemical researchers and other experts who are interested in employing our novel metabolites in their work may purchase our metabolite library for use in any desired screening assay.

Pipetting chemical samples

HiTES on demand

Our HiTES platform is versatile and can be applied to any microorganism to either enhance production of known natural products or induce entirely new ones. We offer HiTES for on-demand use on any microbe of choice.

Publications

Publication: Nature Chemical Biology 15, 161-168 (2019)

A genetics-free method for high-throughput discovery of cryptic microbial metabolites.

Fei Xu, Yihan Wu, Chen Zhang, Katherine M. Davis, Kyuho Moon, Leah B. Bushin, and Mohammad R. Seyedsayamdost

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High-throughput platform for the discovery of elicitors of silent bacterial gene clusters.

Mohammad R. Seyedsayamdost

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Publication: ACS Chemical Biology 14, 767–774 (2019)

Bioactivity-HiTES Unveils Cryptic Antibiotics Encoded in Actinomycete Bacteria.

Kyuho Moon, Fei Xu, Chen Zhang, Mohammad R. Seyedsayamdost

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Bacteria producing chemical compounds

Ready to get started using cryptic metabolites?

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