Why is the FBI sourcing enzymes for drug detection from Patagonia? The answer lies in an unconventional start-up that’s blazing a new trail for biotech.
When a drug is processed by the liver, a little tag is added to make the drug more water soluble, so it can pass out of the body in urine. That tag gets cleaved off by BG, so that the original drug can be detected. The entire process in typical forensic workflows takes between four and sixteen hours.
Kura Biotech’s resulting suite of BG enzymes can accomplish almost in minutes what previously took hours. That’s why Kura is now the largest supplier of BG enzymes not only in Chile, but all over the world. Even the FBI uses Kura Biotech enzymes, and with the current opioid crisis, the demand is ever-growing.But the opioid epidemic isn’t the only public health crisis impacted by Kura Biotech. When the pandemic sent scientists home in 2020, Rozas and team made a plan to get back to work.
It’s that culture that attracted Shervin Kamkar, VP of Business Development at Kura Biotech. “Their ability to pivot very quickly and put their engineering team to work [on the effort at hand] is really good,” he noted. Kamkar has a pedigree that includes giants like IlluminaA self-described genomics geek, Kamkar came on board to lead Kura’s expansion in a new direction. Genomics – our ability to understand and harness the power of DNA—is the key to precision medicine.
But like BG, the backbone used for most TDT’s typically comes from bovine sources. Kura uses a novel TDT backbone that does not come from bovine or mouse sequences, and is not protected by previous patents. Their enzyme is particularly adept at adding novel building blocks to DNA, which can allow it to perform novel functions. This enzyme will be a launch-pad that can be adapted and customized to suit boutique needs.
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