Biomatter, a start-up that creates new enzymes with the help of artificial intelligence, attracted an investment of 6.5 million euros | Business

In 2019, in the Biomatter magazine,Nature Machine Intelligence” demonstrated that with the help of artificial intelligence it is possible to create new enzymes that do not exist in nature. This landmark algorithm opened new avenues for synthetic biology research and development worldwide. Today, the Intelligent Architecture™ platform developed by Biomatter allows the creation of completely unique enzymes, avoiding the shortcomings of natural enzymes, thus greatly expanding their application possibilities.

The new investment, along with a rapidly growing customer base that includes companies such as Thermo Fisher Scientific, BASF, and Neogen, will allow Biomatter to further expand the capabilities of its unique platform and use it to create innovative products.

Company photo/Biomatter team

Enzymes are the key to the future of the bioeconomy

The rapidly growing population of the world requires new innovative solutions in the fields of medicine, chemical industry and sustainable food production.

Enzymes are the key molecules that can become the basis of this transformation. Enzymes found in nature today have important functions in various industries: diagnostics (e.g. using DNA polymerases), gene editing (e.g. CRISPR-Cas systems), biofuel production (e.g. using cellulases) or agriculture (e.g. using phytases).

However, each field and application requires new, unique enzymes, the generation of which is extremely challenging for scientists. Current enzyme development methods are based on expensive experimental research that can last months or even several years, and the applications of enzymes created in this way are still extremely limited.

The unique technology developed by the Biomatter team helps to overcome these limitations and look at enzyme engineering from a different perspective.

“Enzymes will play an extremely important role in the bioeconomy of the future. These molecules are the enabling element that allows us to create and produce new chemical compounds, cells and even organisms. The unique enzymes we successfully develop for our partners around the world demonstrate our ability to push the boundaries of conventional enzyme engineering. We believe that the unlimited possibilities to create the desired enzymes will help us contribute to building a better tomorrow for the planet and people”, says Laurynas Karpus, director and co-founder of Biomatter.

Innovative technologies for a sustainable future

The limited possibilities of enzyme engineering led Biomatter to develop a sustainable solution to this problem. In 2019, the Biomatter team presented an important study, who showed that their artificial intelligence tool can learn from large amounts of data about pre-existing enzymes and use this generalized knowledge to generate entirely new enzyme molecules. This achievement was a major breakthrough, demonstrating for the first time in the world that artificial intelligence can help create new, fully functional enzymes.

The Intelligent Architecture™ platform is the result of many years of work by Biomatter scientists and engineers, enabling a fundamental paradigm shift in enzyme development. Traditional methods of enzyme engineering are based on introducing small changes to molecules that already exist in nature to create new or improved functions. In most cases, these improvements are quite small and the functions are similar to existing ones. Natural enzymes simply haven’t evolved for 21st century industrial purposes.

Biomatter’s enzyme engineering platform enables the creation of new enzymes beyond existing molecules. After deciding what function and properties the enzyme should have, a new molecule is created starting from a “blank sheet”. In this way, protein engineers can design a new molecule from its first atom, specifically tailored for its final application.

Such a breakthrough in the field of enzyme engineering is possible thanks to the new artificial intelligence and physical algorithms developed by Biomatter, which were developed and continue to be improved in the company’s laboratories in Lithuania.

“AI-based protein design is currently one of the most exciting and dynamic areas for venture capital investment. Biomatter’s innovative approach to creating enzymes from scratch allows us to go beyond the limits of natural enzymes and achieve real breakthroughs in the field of biotechnology. We are deeply impressed with the entire team and are confident that Biomatter is a leader in AI-based protein engineering,” says Dr. Oliver Schoppe, representative of UVC Partners.

Unique enzymes in various industries

Using the Intelligent Architecture™ platform, Biomatter develops enzymes for a variety of industries, including chemical and food, agriculture, medicine and life sciences. This platform helps reduce enzyme development time from years to just a few weeks and opens up opportunities for developing new enzyme functions. Biomatter is successfully developing new enzymes for companies such as Thermo Fisher Scientific, BASF and Neogen.

One example of the application of the platform is the successful partnership between Biomatter and Kirin, one of the largest food and health companies in the world. This project developed a method for the efficient production of human milk oligosaccharides (LMOs) using completely new enzymes developed by Biomatter. During this collaboration, the main focus was on one of the most important PAHs found in natural human milk – lacto-N-fucopentose (LNFP I).

HPO is a necessary component for the health of the baby, strengthening the immune system and protecting against infections. The ability to produce large amounts of LPOs such as LNFP I means that more and more babies around the world will have access to the complete milk formula necessary for their full development.

“The application of artificial intelligence to the design of proteins will be a transformative tool to help solve fundamental problems related to their engineering.” The results achieved in previous projects in cooperation with international companies demonstrate that the technology developed by Biomatter accelerates innovation in this field, expanding the application possibilities of enzymes in both existing and new fields. The Biomatter team is constantly improving the enzyme engineering platform in an effort to meet the high demand for enzyme engineering,” says Inventure Investment Partner Kevin Lösch.