Numeric is a newly formed company (02/2024). Numeric’s purpose is to both develop and implement a framework to design enzymatic catalysts with desirable physical characteristics tailored to specific industrial and end-product applications.
What is Numeric?
We are developing a method to design enzymes that is independent of the likes of machine learning based sequence analysis, mutagenesis screens, and traditional enzyme discovery.
The framework we are developing is called the Spatially Localized Analysis of Protein Physical Characteristics (SLAPP-C)
How is Numeric different?
What is Numeric’s Mission Statement?
Numeric was formed to design effective solutions to problems at the interface of biology and physics, specifically to create new products, services, and industrial processes.
How is Numeric funded?
Numeric LLC is pursuing funding through the National Science Foundation’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award to fund the research and development of SLAPP-C. Numeric has already received an invitation to submit a proposal to that funding mechanism.
Our goal is to partner with individual companies to design for them enzymes that perform under the most challenging of physical conditions. We intend to work with a client’s technical staff to understand the exact nature of the process in which an enzymatic catalyst would result in 1) a new product, 2) extension of an existing product into new markets, 3) to reduce the cost of producing a product.
In the near term we intend to patent our enzymes, and either license the patent, or directly sell the patent to our clients. It is our intention to utilize funds generated by the sale and licensing of patented enzymes to invest in and create our own infrastructure to ferment new proprietary enzymes domestically, within the United States.
Numeric’s business model
How does a partnership with Numeric work?
Numeric is pursuing funding through the NSF SBIR program to both evaluate and develop the SLAPP-C concept. We are looking to partner with companies who have specific technical challenges in the application of enzymatic catalysts to either an industrial process or end-product application.
Numeric will work with interested parties at no cost, and invest its own resources into the development of a proprietary enzyme, that will be owned by Numeric. When an enzyme has been designed and proven to robustly operate in a given set of solvent and physical conditions Numeric will then offer to either 1) license the proprietary enzyme to the client, or 2) sell the patent to the client.
We are preparing our phase I proposal to the NSF SBIR. It is our intention to use this funding to both develop and critically evaluate the methodology composing SLAPP-C. We are soliciting letters of support from companies that may be interested in utilizing our efforts. We ask only for a letter indicating an interest in our services in the future, dependent on the results of our phase I work. We will use that letter as part of our proposal to the NSF SBIR program.
Who is Numeric?
John B. Linehan, PhD: John is currently a post-doc at NC State. He earned his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill under Amy Maddox (UNC-CH) and Sebastian Furthauer (TU-WIEN). His dissertation focused on the development of physical models to understand how the cell cytoskeleton generates force during cell division and development. Prior to matriculating at UNC-CH, John worked as lab manager/research assistant in a cell motility lab at DePaul University while also completing his M.S. in physics.
Jesus Pando, PhD: Jesus is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Physics at DePaul University. Jesus earned his PhD under Prof. Li-Zhi Fang at the University of Arizona. He received the Chateaubriand post-doctoral, followed by an NSF international post-doctoral fellowship to continue his work at the Observatoire de Strasbourg, France.
What are the origins of the SLAPP-C framework?
Jesus has studied the application of the wavelet family of spectral analysis techniques to the problem of protein secondary structure detection since the mid 2000s. He then expanded the scope of that research by mentoring John during his undergraduate and masters studies. The project at the time was a comparative study of homolog proteins from mesophile and thermophile prokaryotes. That work formed the foundation on which the SLAPP-C concept was developed.
We want to work for you
We are grateful for the opportunity to discuss the problems you may face in deploying enzymes in your business.
We appreciate your interest in our services. Thank you!