With the completion of the human genome project, characterization of the many tens of thousands of novel gene products, mostly proteins, becomes the next daunting task for biomedical research. Because the chemistry of proteins is orders of magnitude more complicated than that of DNA, many novel technologies need to be invented or perfected before proteomics can reach the same extent of success of the genome projects. DNA molecules are easily labeled or immobilized on solid surface. Protein chemists tried many approaches to find tool enzymes for direct engineering and non-chemical labeling of proteins. But these methods are either sophisticated or inefficient. Protein engineering is still achieved mainly by engineering the encoding DNA molecules while protein labeling and immobilization are achieved using cross-linking reagents that could be detrimental to the biological/biochemical properties of proteins.

Biomyx is developing a novel protein ligation system that’s able to enzymatically join any recombinant proteins efficiently with a short consensus sequence to another protein or short peptide molecule. The system enables site- specific labeling, modification or immobilization of protein molecules and will find applications in many fields using protein as the tool or the subject, including protein engineering, protein-protein interactions, proteomics, and protein delivery. The system will have great impact on diagnostics and therapeutic as well. With this system, the potency, target selectivity or in vivo stability of many recombinant diagnostic and therapeutic proteins (e.g. recombinant antibodies or growth factors) can be dramatically improved while their biological activities of diagnostic and therapeutic value are fully retained. For these proteins, it’s extremely important to reserve their biological activities as it takes a lot of time, effort and money for a drug to be approved and marketed.