Kapa Biosystems is a biotech company providing life science reagents based on its proprietary directed evolution technologies to optimize enzymes for next-generation sequencing, real-time PCR or molecular diagnostics.
Kapa Biosystems – enzyme solutions
The majority of DNA and RNA modifying enzymes are directly isolated from nature without modifications and were never intended as tools for molecular biology. Directed evolution is a protein engineering method that simulates natural selection. Directed evolution enables to engineer improvements to enzyme functions (such as specific activity, thermostability, resistance to inhibitors or processivity) that require global changes of protein structure. A gene coding for a “wild-type” or unmodified enzyme of interest will be modified by random variation using mutagenesis, thus generating a library of millions of genes each coding for a unique enzyme variant. A functional selection pressure is then applied to the library, and only the genes coding for the highest performing enzymes will “survive”. This process of random mutation and selection can be repeated several times until the desired enzyme function evolves. Kapa Biosystems’ core technology combines a high-throughput emulsion format (aqueous droplets suspended in oil used as microreactors) with high-throughput selection assays. This proprietary technology enables the functional screening of hundreds of millions of enzyme variants in parallel.
Kapa Biosystems offers a wide range of products containing novel enzymes that confer significant performance advantages when compared to traditional wild-type enzymes. Kapa Biosystems is a leading developer, manufacturer and supplier of life science reagents for DNA and RNA amplification, sequencing, molecular diagnostic and applied testing applications, and all products are manufactured in-house and conform to international quality standards.
Kapa Biosystems is based in Cape Town (South Africa) and Wilmington (USA), and leaded by John Foskett (CTO), Christopher McGuinness (COO), Paul McEwan (CSO), Kobus Lindeque and Erick Suh. Since 2006, Kapa Biosystems pioneered the use of directed evolution to develop high-performance reagents used by thousands of scientists around the world and cited in more than 2.000 peer-reviewed publications. Kapa Biosystems is constantly evolving by applying the latest advances in genomics and synthetic biology to help reduce costs, simplify workflows and improve results. These protein engineering technologies enable Kapa Biosystems to tailor enzymes to suit specific applications in next-generation DNA and RNA sequencing, DNA amplification and molecular diagnostics. Thanks to Kapa Biosystems, Biopharma research is no longer limited by the constraints of native enzyme functions or structures!
More about Kapa Biosystems : www.kapabiosystems.com
Kapa Biosystems – directed evolution technology – random mutagenesis
Kapa Biosystems – enzyme engineering – DNA-modifying enzymes – RNA-modifying enzymes – enzyme production – quality control – customized enzyme – buffer formulations – protein engineering method – mutagenesis – John Foskett – Christopher McGuinness – Paul McEwan – Kobus Lindeque -Erick Suh – synthetic biology – KapaBiosystems