Draft:Aralez Bio
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Comment: Almost all of the sources talk about the founders of the company, and not the company itself. Also, ref 11 is a press release. mwwv converse∫edits 18:45, 18 June 2025 (UTC)
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Aralez Bio is an American biotechnology company based in San Leandro, California, that develops noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs) using biocatalysis.[1] Founded in 2019, the company is based on research conducted at the California Institute of Technology. Aralez Bio's amino acid products are used in areas such as peptide therapeutics and genetic code expansion.
Founders
[edit]Aralez Bio was co-founded by:
- Christina Boville, the chief executive officer (CEO), holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Colorado Boulder, where she studied the innate immune system. She later joined Frances Arnold’s lab at Caltech as a postdoctoral researcher. In 2020, she was named one of MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35.[2]
- David Romney, the chief technology officer (CTO), earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from Yale University, where he conducted research in synthetic organic chemistry. He later conducted postdoctoral research in Frances Arnold’s lab at Caltech. In 2022, he was named to Chemical & Engineering News’s Talented 12.[3]
- Frances Arnold, co-founder, is a professor of chemical engineering at Caltech. She received the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work on the directed evolution of enzymes[4] and was awarded the 2025 Priestley Medal.[5]
History
[edit]Aralez Bio was incorporated in 2019. Its founders collaborated in Frances Arnold’s lab at Caltech, where they published research on enzyme-catalyzed synthesis of tryptophan analogs and other noncanonical amino acids.[6][7]
In 2019, the company was selected for the fifth cohort of the Cyclotron Road entrepreneurial fellowship program, hosted at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.[8] By 2024, Cyclotron Road-affiliated companies, including Aralez Bio, had collectively raised over $3 billion in follow-on funding.[9]
In 2024, Aralez Bio closed a 12 million dollar Series A financing round led by Spero Ventures, with matched investment from Paladin Capital Group and participation from several other investors.[10]
In 2024, the company and National Resilience, Inc. were awarded 17.5 million dollars from the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response to expand domestic manufacturing capacity for pharmaceutical ingredients.[11] Aralez Bio has been featured in several interviews and podcasts, including FiftyYears Translation[12], the Climate Capital podcast[13], and the American Chemical Society's ChemMatters magazine.[14]
Technology
[edit]Aralez Bio develops engineered enzymes to catalyze the synthesis of noncanonical amino acids. The company applies directed evolution to optimize enzyme function, a methodology pioneered by Frances Arnold. Foundational work at the California Institute of Technology focused on engineering variants of Tryptophan synthase to create tryptophan analogs with novel chemical properties.[6][7][15] The platform enables the scalable, selective synthesis of amino acids that lie outside the canonical genetic code. These amino acids are used in a range of applications including peptide drug discovery and genetic code expansion. [16]
Recognition
[edit]- 2019: Selected for the Cyclotron Road Fellowship (now known as Activate)[8]
- 2020: Christina Boville named one of MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35[2]
- 2021: Boville named a Biotech Founder to Watch by FounderLedBio[17]
- 2022: David Romney named to Chemical & Engineering News's Talented 12[3]
- 2023: Boville recognized by the City of San Leandro for Women in Manufacturing Week[18]
- 2024: Featured in ACS ChemMatters as an example of chemistry entrepreneurship[14]
- 2024: Profiled by CHEManager for its sustainability potential[19]
- 2025: Featured as Lab of the Month by the American Peptide Society[20]
References
[edit]- ^ "Aralez Bio". Aralez Bio. Retrieved 2025-06-16.
- ^ a b "Christina Boville". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2025-06-16.
- ^ a b "David Romney". C&EN. Retrieved 2025-06-16.
- ^ "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018 – Frances H. Arnold". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 2025-06-16.
- ^ "Frances Arnold named 2025 Priestley Medalist". C&EN. Retrieved 2025-06-16.
- ^ a b Romney, D. K.; Murciano-Calles, J.; Wehrmüller, J. E.; Arnold, F. H. (2017). "Unlocking reactivity of TrpB: a general biocatalytic platform for synthesis of tryptophan analogues". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 139 (33): 10769–10776. doi:10.1021/jacs.7b06104 (inactive 19 June 2025). PMID 28708383.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of June 2025 (link) - ^ a b Boville, C. E.; Scheele, R. A.; Koch, P.; Brinkmann-Chen, S.; Buller, A. R.; Arnold, F. H. (2018). "Engineered biosynthesis of β-alkyl tryptophan analogues". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 57 (48): 14764–14768. doi:10.1002/anie.201807998. PMID 30215880.
- ^ a b "Cyclotron Road Announces Its Fifth Cohort of Entrepreneurial Fellows". Berkeley Lab News Center. 2019-05-22. Retrieved 2025-06-16.
- ^ "Cyclotron Road Companies Exceed $3 Billion in Follow-On Funding". Berkeley Lab News Center. 2024-12-17. Retrieved 2025-06-16.
- ^ "Aralez Bio Closes $12 Million Series A Financing Round". VC News Daily. 2024-10-30. Retrieved 2025-06-16.
- ^ "Resilience Secures Funding to Expand Domestic Manufacturing". Resilience.com. 2024. Retrieved 2025-06-16.
- ^ "Translation Podcast: Christina Boville". FiftyYears. 2020-10-20. Retrieved 2025-06-16.
- ^ "Decarbonizing Chemical Design with Tina Boville". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 2025-06-16.
- ^ a b "Chemistry and Business Working Together". American Chemical Society. Retrieved 2025-06-17.
- ^ Buller, A. R.; Brinkmann-Chen, S.; Romney, D. K.; Herger, M.; Murciano-Calles, J.; Arnold, F. H. (2015). "Directed evolution of the tryptophan synthase β-subunit for stand-alone function recapitulates allosteric activation". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 112 (47): 14599–14604. doi:10.1073/pnas.1515272112 (inactive 19 June 2025).
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of June 2025 (link) - ^ Rix, G.; Liu, C. C.; Arnold, F. H. (2020). "Scalable continuous evolution for the generation of diverse enzyme variants encompassing promiscuous activities". Nature Communications. 11 (1): 5644. Bibcode:2020NatCo..11.5644R. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-19539-6. PMC 7648111. PMID 33159067.
- ^ "Founders to Watch 2021". FounderLedBio via Wayback Machine. Archived from the original on 2021-12-06. Retrieved 2025-06-16.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ "Celebrate Women Makers During Manufacturing Week". San Leandro Next. Retrieved 2025-06-16.
- ^ "Noncanonical Amino Acids Made by Enzymes". CHEManager. 2024. Retrieved 2025-06-16.
- ^ "Lab of the Month: Aralez Bio". American Peptide Society. 2025-01-01. Retrieved 2025-06-16.
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