Prospect Bio
Specialises in the rapid development of biosensors for the detection of small molecules.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | investor investor | €0.0 | round |
| investor | €0.0 | round | |
$2.8m | Seed | ||
| Total Funding | 000k | ||
Related Content
Prospect Bio operated in the synthetic biology sector, focusing on the development of biologically based detection systems. The company was founded in 2014 by Giles Ochs and was also known as MetaMixis, Inc. A spin-out from The University of British Columbia, the firm aimed to expedite biological strain engineering through the discovery of novel biosensors.
The core of Prospect Bio's business was its platform for rapidly discovering enzymes and pathways to create bio-based materials and chemicals. This system combined automation, computation, and synthetic biology to screen for enzymes from natural and engineered ecosystems. The primary benefit of this approach was yielding new biosensors in a significantly shorter timeframe compared to building them from the ground up. The company's main clients were expected to be in the life sciences and medical research fields, including industries like fragrance and cosmetics.
A notable milestone for Prospect Bio was a collaboration with Ginkgo Bioworks. This partnership aimed to develop a biosensor to enable the screening of much larger libraries of engineered microbes, which was anticipated to lower costs and accelerate development times for new biological products. The company's investors included Viaduct Ventures, Illumina, and Rising Tide Fund. According to PitchBook data, the company ceased operations as of January 1, 2020.
Keywords: biosensors, synthetic biology, enzyme discovery, strain engineering, microbial biotechnology, biologically based detection, metabolic engineering, Ginkgo Bioworks collaboration, Giles Ochs, MetaMixis, life sciences technology, small molecule detection, high-throughput screening, bio-based materials, pathway discovery, environmental DNA libraries