Giovanni Stracquadanio

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What is your research focus? 

My company, enZYme THERApeutics (ZYTHERA), has developed a new platform to design and manufacture Enzyme Replacement Therapies using AI and a patented microbial and mammalian production system, to deliver affordable care to patients while becoming a disruptive player in the $8bn  Enzyme Replacement Therapy market.  

What problem will it solve? 

Rare diseases are severe conditions affecting <1:10,000 people and most of them lack treatment. Lysosomal storage diseases  are devastating rare diseases, which are caused by inactivation of enzymes responsible for degrading lipids and glycoproteins, which leads to organ damage and death. Enzyme Replacement Therapies are the standard-of-care for these diseases and consist of restoring enzyme activity by injecting patients with a recombinant version of the defective enzyme. However, current therapies are not effective, are expensive to manufacture, and require 10-20 years to reach the clinic. 

What is your innovation idea? 

My drug engineering platform relies on two, integrated components: a generative protein engineering AI model and an automated microbial and mammalian protein production system. My AI model, called PROtein-engineering-by-TempOral-convolutional Networks (PROTON) builds new proteins after learning patterns of mutations from known protein databases and has been validated by re-engineering a complex enzyme essential for the growth of E. coli.  

What is the future of your research? 

The experimental platform combines an efficient high-throughput DNA delivery system with automated culturing of cell populations for protein production in micro-litre scale reactions, enabling production cycles of libraries of hundreds of enzymes in as little as 3 weeks.