Microbiology

Nereus has generated a unique collection of over 20,000 marine microorganisms, with over 13,000 high quality extracts and 16,000 well-characterized fractions derived from these organisms as a new source for drug discovery, The size of this high quality library was limited by design to focus on maximum biological and chemical diversity. The samples were collected from diverse territories, environmental conditions and microbial habitats and were processed to facilitate the isolation of rare microorganisms. Morphological characterization and genetic analyses were used to select the most diverse microorganisms for fermentation.

The company uses genetic analysis to demonstrate the diversity contained within its microbial collection at the genus level. Of special note is the reduced representation of the Streptomyces genus, which typically makes up 70% of most culture collections. Nereus’ culture collection’s diversity will maximize the chemical diversity in its extracts. Nereus has isolated 31 rare genera, which provides enhanced chemical diversity when compared with typical terrestrial collections generally representing no more than 20 genera. The company has also isolated novel organisms with no genetic match or only represented by clones that have, up until now, not been cultured in the laboratory.