Cell-free bio-manufacturing – building proteins without the hassles of a cell wall.
Congrats to Sutro Bio on their recent IPO! In full disclosure, I have been a fan of this concept from the still-too-early days, investing in their spinout from Stanford, and then the subsequent four rounds over the past 14 years. It took a while to optimize this technology, but now I see new high-volume opportunities in protein synthesis to feed the clean lab meat industry.
Surto’s focus to date has been on manufacturing protein therapeutics for cancer and autoimmune disorders. In 2017, they built the world’s first cell-free manufacturing facility in San Carlos, producing human antibodies. To date, biologic therapies (monoclonal antibodies, proteins and cellular therapies) become quite expensive because they require multi-billion manufacturing facilities. Cell-free approaches hope to make a 100-2000x improvement in manufacturing cost and scalability.
They also can expand the protein universe with naturally inaccessible proteins and non-native amino acids (tRNA can code for many more than the 20 found in nature). More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expanded_genetic_code
FDA last week: https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/sutro-s-stro-001-receives-u-s-fda-orphan-drug-designation-for-treatment-of-multiple-myeloma/
IPO: https://seekingalpha.com/news/3393281-sutro-bio-prices-upsized-ipo-15
Jim Swartz Lab: https://profiles.stanford.edu/james-swartz
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