San Diego, CA and Sunnyvale, CA (May 20th, 2019). Denovium and Maxygen announced today the formation of a strategic partnership centered on the application of Denovium’s artificial intelligence (AI) platform to Maxygen’s molecular breeding technology. The directed evolution platform employed by Maxygen generates high-quality information on protein variants for the AI approach, which can be leveraged to further engineer proteins towards any trait of interest. Ultimately, Denovium’s deep-learning AI approach will provide an in silico process that is more predictive than conventional algorithms, thereby saving valuable time and resources.This partnership brings together Maxygen’s expertise in molecular breeding and directed evolution with Denovium’s state-of-art AI engine. Maxygen’s technology delivers high quality enzyme and protein variants with improved function. Denovium improves upon classical bioinformatics approaches that rely on biological assumptions, by learning from empirical data and allowing the AI to provide answers de novo.Maxygen’s CEO, Steve Riedmuller said, “We are pleased to partner with Denovium in this important field. Protein engineering is a key driver of recent advances in medicine and working with Denovium is a perfect fit. We look forward to leveraging our expertise with molecular breeding to extend the advanced AI expertise of Denovium.”Toby Richardson, CEO of Denovium added, “Maxygen’s directed evolution and synthetic biology capabilities will complement our position as a leading provider of AI applied to protein engineering. We are excited to collaborate across various projects to further our strategic initiatives.”Directed evolution is a powerful laboratory method for the optimization of protein function. Its application to enzymes was the basis of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Dr. Frances Arnold of the California Institute of Technology. The molecular breeding approach to directed evolution was invented by Dr. Willem Stemmer and is generally regarded as the most efficient way to improve functional attributes for any type of protein (e.g., increased enzymatic activity, specificity improved thermostability, binding activity, and more). The deep-learning AI approach will benefit from the results of directed evolution to provide further solutions to protein optimization and can be combined with the methods of synthetic biology to rapidly create novel genes and proteins for commercial use.Financial details were not disclosed.About Denovium Inc.Denovium is an artificial intelligence company pioneering novel AI methods to accelerate innovation in biopharma. Founded by genomics and computer science experts, Denovium is building an artificial intelligence engine (Denovium EngineTM) capable of interpreting disparate biological data types to answer biology’s toughest questions. Denovium is partnering with leading biotech and pharma companies in specific areas of focus including gene discovery, protein engineering and genomic medicine. CONTACT INFORMATIONImad AjjawiChief Business Officer, DenoviumImad@denovium.com11646 Candy Rose WaySan Diego, CA 92131Info@denovium.comwww.denovium.comwww.linkedin.com/company/denovium/About Maxygen LLCMaxygen LLC is located in Sunnyvale, CA. Custom services include the molecular breeding directed evolution technology with associated screening capabilities, as well as additional expertise in synthetic biology, molecular biology, and protein sciences. A diverse skill set allows for extended R&D outsourcing to provide full service offerings from project strategy and design to the execution of a complete discovery program. Maxygen works with leading therapeutic, R&D, and product-focused companies in the biotech industry to optimize their proteins of interest for process conditions.CONTACT INFORMATIONJanelle MuranakaDirector of Operations, Maxygenjanelle.muranaka@maxygen.com725 San Aleso Avenue, Suite 2Sunnyvale, CA 94085service@maxygen.comwww.maxygen.comwww.linkedin.com/company/maxygenllc/www.facebook.com/maxygenllc/