CompanyKapa Biosystems was founded in 2006 to develop next-generation PCR reagents. Our molecular evolution technology platform is currently being used to optimize enzymes for DNA amplification, next-generation DNA sequencing, and molecular diagnostic applications. The majority of biomedical and research applications were designed around a small subset of native enzymes. The limitations of these applications are often the result of constraints due to enzyme structure or function. Recent advances in molecular evolution have allowed enzymes to be tailored to suit specific application requirements. Enzyme engineering improves existing methods and provides the foundation on which entirely novel applications can be built. Kapa Biosystems conducts advanced protein engineering, taking advantage of recent developments in genomics, proteomics, and synthetic biology.
Technology+ Molecular Evolution"Evolution is a search algorithm that finds needles of good design in haystacks of possibility" – Daniel Dennett The rational design of enzyme function has proven largely unsuccessful due to the complexities of protein structure and the difficulty of adequately modeling the cumulative effects of protein modification. For these reasons, a preferred strategy for protein engineering involves mimicking evolution. Kapa Biosystems is deploying a suite of high-throughput directed evolution technologies for the discovery and optimization of novel protein products. Wild-type enzymes become engineered enzymes as a result of this technology platform. The key drivers of our technology involve: - The generation of extreme genetic diversity within the protein as a substrate for screening
- The development of assays that select for the desired protein structure or function
Recent innovations in mutagenesis library construction, in vitro genotype-phenotype linkage, and selection assays capable of screening millions of proteins in parallel have finally unlocked the potential of molecular evolution.
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