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Maxygen Inc.

 
• By Myrna Watanabe

Combinatorial Biology. Maxygen, founded by Alejandro Zaffaroni, PhD, is selecting randomly reassembled fragments of DNA for specific properties of the enzymes they produce. Glaxo Wellcome owns more than half of the equity in Maxygen.

As Gregor Mendel painstakingly selected pea plants for their phenotypic qualities, the modern day Mendels at Maxygen Inc. are painstakingly selecting randomly reassembled fragments of DNA for specific properties of the enzymes they produce. This patented method is called "DNA reassembly after random fragmentation," but it also can be described as generation of DNA diversity, genetic shuffling, or molecular evolution. Frances Arnold, PhD, professor of chemical engineering at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, an advisor on industrial enzymes to Maxygen, explains that the technique is a combination of in vitro recombination and point mutation.

The technology involves cleavage of DNA to produce random fragments. These are sized, then reannealed using PCR. The DNAs produced...

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