BioWorld Today Correspondent

Genetic Chemistry Inc., a Bay Area subsidiary of Evolva SA, secured a contract worth up to $22.8 million from the U.S. Army Research Office to discover and develop novel compounds that act against the Gram-negative bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei.

The Palo Alto, Calif.,-based company will deploy the metabolic engineering platform in the program developed by its parent company, Evolva SA, of Allschwil, Switzerland.

That involves the creation of artificial yeast chromosomes containing genes isolated from multiple natural sources, which can form new biosynthetic pathways that give rise to novel compounds.

"We are using a biological system to address biological functions," Pascal Longchamp, vice president of business development at Evolva, told BioWorld Today.

Genetic Chemistry, which is led by CEO Melya Hughes Crameri, will take up to 30 months to identify a scaffold from which drug candidates can be generated, Longchamp said. Other participants in the program are providing knowledge on targets and on disease biology. They include Rick Titball, professor of molecular microbiology at the University of Exeter in the UK, who is a leading expert on bacterial pathogenesis; the UK's Defence Science & Technology Laboratory at Porton Down, where Titball previously worked; and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M., which is supplying bioinformatics expertise.

Burkholderia pseudomallei, which previously was considered a member of the Pseudomonas genus, is a soil bacterium that has been classified as a Category B bioterror threat. It causes a condition called melioidosis, which often is fatal if not treated with appropriate antibiotics.

"It's not only linked to bioterror. It's a problem you find in Thailand, for instance," Longchamp said. "There are currently not many drugs which target it."

The deal will allow Evolva to build out its fledgling U.S. subsidiary, which it established about a year ago.

"Right now we are aiming for a group of 15 people," he added. Its location in the Bay Area was deliberate. "For us it was very important to harness innovation," Longchamp said. Genetic Chemistry also will enable Evolva to tap into other U.S. sources of funding.

Evolva also operates centers in Frederiksberg, Denmark, and Tarnaka, India, and employs about 65 people in total.

It raised CHF21.5 million (US$20.7 million) in a Series A round that closed in March 2005.

The company will seek more funding to take its two lead compounds into the clinic later this year, EV-077-3201-2, which is in development for cardiovascular and metabolic disease, and an antifungal compound, EV-086-3314.