Nereus' Unique Source For Drug Discovery

Marine microorganisms have developed unique metabolic and physiological capabilities that ensure survival in diverse habitats and offer the potential to produce metabolites that are not present in terrestrial microorganisms. Historically, microbes isolated from terrestrial sources have been a premier source for commercially successful drugs. Nereus believes that the screening of new, biologically active compounds from marine microbes has the potential to exceed the productivity from terrestrial sources, and the success to date support this belief.

Nereus has capitalized on more than 20 years of academic research in marine microbiology by Dr. William Fenical, a co-founder of Nereus and a recognized oceanographic scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego. Nereus has industrialized the isolation and fermentation techniques necessary to culture marine organisms to pharmaceutical standards. Currently, Nereus is the only company fully dedicated to the discovery of novel biologically active compounds from marine microbial collections.

Nereus' competitive advantage is based upon the robust discovery process formed through integration of its core technologies centered around microbiology and natural products chemistry.

Discovery Process and Productivity

The discovery process begins with isolation of unique microbes and generation of chemical extracts of biologically active molecules produced by the microbes. A series of interlinked databases containing information on the microorganisms, their sources, culture and extraction conditions, novel chemistries and biological activities have been developed that allow for a concentrated effort on the most productive organisms. Screening the extracts and fractions against the company's primary targets leads to identification of novel, biologically active discovery leads in the selected therapeutic areas of oncology and infectious diseases

Nereus has developed a highly scalable, reproducible discovery process (shown schematically below) that integrates microbiology, screening and natural products chemistry in an iterative manner. This platform combines robust extraction and fractionation with streamlined sample dereplication to discover new, unique pharmaceutical agents.
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