𝐏𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥 𝐁𝐢𝐨 𝐈𝐧𝐤𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐁𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐜𝐬
Pearl Bio Pearl Bio, backed by Khosla Ventures Khosla Ventures, has partnered with Merck (MSD) MSD to discover biologic therapies using non-standard amino acids. This collaboration leverages expertise and patents from co-founders Farren Isaacs (Yale) and Michael Jewett (Stanford), focusing on Genomically Recoded Organisms (GROs) for new classes of biologics.
The focus is on cancer treatment, utilizing Pearl's GRO technology, cell-based and cell-free systems, and tethered ribosomes for encoding synthetic monomers.
Amy Cayne Schwartz Amy Cayne Schwartz, Co-Founder and President of Pearl, expressed enthusiasm for creating multifunctional therapeutic candidates.
The agreement entails payments up to $1B across upfront, option, and milestone payments, plus potential royalties on sales of approved products.
Juan Alvarez Juan Alvarez, Vice President of Discovery Biologics at Merck Research Laboratories, highlighted the excitement about collaborating with Pearl to develop novel biologics.
#Biotech #SyntheticBiology #BiologicTherapies #CancerResearch
#Collaboration #Pharma #DrugDiscovery #Partnerships
#Bioengineering #Genomics #MedicalResearch