Zymergen announced a new drug discovery business based around their proprietary synthetic biology platform and what is believed to be the large metagenomics database, combining both size and quality. This new business leverages Zymergen's differentiated access to natural products as a source of diverse chemical matter and augments Zymergen's existing advanced materials programs, capitalizing on years of prior research and development in synthetic biology. Zymergen's metagenomics database - which contains a breadth and depth of metagenomic information rivaling all publicly available datasets combined - provides access to a vast reservoir of novel natural products, including molecules from uncultured microbes.

With this resource, Zymergen scientists have been able to confirm currently marketed blockbuster drugs and molecules in late clinical development, and discover novel modulators of important oncology targets. By combining next-gen sequencing with proprietary machine learning and informatics, Zymergen's platform transforms the search for structurally novel bioactive molecules from tedious screening campaigns to a rapid and accurate digital database search for a therapeutic target of interest. Zymergen's initial drug discovery pipeline is focused on high-value oncology targets where precision medicine and Zymergen's distinctive, complex molecules are expected to provide competitive and therapeutic advantages.