Natural products are small molecules created by micro-organisms in the environment that have historically been a remarkable source of medicines, contributing to over 500 drugs currently available in the market. However, with conventional research methods, the discovery of new natural products has reached a plateau. The most accessible compounds have already been identified, leading to a decline in pharmaceutical industry's interest.

This presents a challenge and an opportunity for innovative approaches to uncover the untapped potential of natural products in medicine.

Recent advancements in DNA manipulation technologies, including sequencing and cloning, have significantly reduced the cost of discovering microbial molecules.

First, sequencing of microorganism DNA enables the detection of biosynthetic gene clusters that code for yet-to-be-discovered molecules.

Once these new biosynthetic clusters are identified, they can be activated in the lab by transferring them into a model organism capable of producing the encoded molecules. Several companies are beginning to adopt this slow but effective discovery strategy.

Among them, GeneRare employs the only DNA-guided discovery method that can be applied on a large scale.

By developing this approach, GeneRare is poised to uncover a multitude of microbial molecules at a cost significantly lower than traditional methods.

Microbial molecules represent the most reliable source of lead molecules that form the basis of anticancer agents, anti-infectives or immunosuppressants.

6 out of every 1000 molecules discovered of microbial origin are typically granted FDA approval as drugs, a success rate more than 100 times higher than that of molecules derived from plants or combinatorial chemistry.