Ailurus Biotechnology Aims to 'IT-ize' Biotech, Making Bioengineering as Simple and Efficient as Software Development

A month ago, Synbiopunk 2021 and the Bio-Developer Conference, themed “Link Start” and featuring “Unconference” self-organized sessions as its primary format, concluded at Shanghai’s Knowledge & Innovation Community (KIC). The conference’s innovative format and theme attracted participants from various sectors, including founders and executives from companies such as Bluepha Microbiology and Huaheng Biotechnology, as well as Amazon Web Services; investors from prominent firms including Sequoia Capital, Wuyuan Capital, and Zhilin Capital; and academic leaders from universities such as Peking University and Fudan University.

It is worth noting that the initiator and organizer behind this intellectual feast is a remarkably young team—Ailurus Biotechnology (Shenzhen Xunzhu Biotechnology Co., Ltd.). What kind of team is this? Why did they choose to launch the Synbiopunk conference series? What are the professional backgrounds of the company’s members that enabled them to invite such a distinguished lineup of guests to this event? Furthermore, what impetus does the hosting of the Synbiopunk conference series provide for the development of the entire industry chain?

To explore the answers to the above questions, VCBeat conductedDr. Haotian Guo, Founder and CEO of Ailurus BiotechnologyConducted an exclusive interview.

(For more exciting content related to the conference, please click to read VCBeat’s on-site coverage article:“A Carnival for ‘Bio-Developers’—Synbiopunk 2021 and the Bio-Developer Conference Held in Shanghai on October 9–10”。）

As early as four months after the founding of Ailurus Biotechnology, Dr. Guo Haotian articulated his reflections on the development of synthetic biology over the next two decades in his article titled “The Next Two Decades of Synthetic Biology: Endless Creation.” He noted, “In the early stages of synthetic biology, we frequently employed metaphors and analogies from computer science and electrical engineering to guide its development. Consequently, the design methodologies for synthetic biology over the past two decades have been based on Boolean algebra and interchangeable standard parts. Yet, ultimately,”Biological systems and transistors remain two fundamentally distinct entities. We require entirely new paradigms to design the future language and methodology of bioengineering, which will drive a qualitative transformation in synthetic biology.”

How to Design the Future Language and Methodology of Bioengineering: Ailurus Biotechnology Has Its Own Answer—In the Imaginative Realm of Synthetic Biology, Establishing a “Standard Language” for Biological Product Design and Providing Users with Various Tools and Cloud Service Interfaces. The synthetic biology R&D platform built by Ailurus Biotechnology based on “ultra-large-scale parallel experiments” can achieve an initial million-fold increase in experimental throughput, enabling rapid iteration of biological products and making bioengineering modifications as simple and efficient as software development.

This may sound hard to imagine. Yet Ailurus Biotechnology, a mere one-year-old “newborn,” has already delivered its first “report card.”In June this year, Ailurus Biotechnology launched the first ultra-high-throughput cloud-based vector testing platform—Ailurus vec™, this platform offers ultra-high-throughput, ultra-low-cost vector testing assays for protein expression optimization,Helping the research and industrial sectors address the widespread challenges in protein expression.

“Regarding recombinant protein expression, textbooks often present a simplified model to facilitate student understanding: a target gene fragment and a vector are seamlessly joined and then introduced into host cells, seemingly allowing for the smooth expression of the desired target protein. However, this is not the case in reality.”

Dr. Guo Haotian stated that, in the course of actual work,A large number of target genes fail to successfully synthesize proteins in cells after recombination.Various unpredictable issues, such as low yield and lack of activity in synthesized proteins, may arise. To date, there remains no standardized solution to these problems; many laboratories continue to rely on empirical methods passed down from predecessors, which often carry a hint of “alchemy” and cannot guarantee ultimate success. Fundamentally, numerous factors influence successful protein expression, among which the selection of the protein expression vector is undoubtedly the most critical.

“Extensive work in systems and synthetic biology has demonstrated that differential vector environments are required for the expression of different proteins. Currently, the range of commercially available vectors for protein expression is limited, with only a few dozen options worldwide, many of which have not been updated since their invention two or three decades ago. Furthermore, the cost of conducting vector testing in laboratory settings is relatively high, with the cost per vector ranging from approximately 200 to 1,000 RMB. Targeting these market pain points, Ailurus Biotechnology has launched the first ultra-high-throughput cloud-based vector testing platform—”Ailurus vec™。

Ailurus vec™ is an automated experimental platform that enables ultra-high-throughput protein expression screening across different vectors simply by selecting the target protein sequence and experimental conditions, thereby identifying optimal protein expression strategies. Compared to conventional laboratory workflows, this platform eliminates the need for repetitive, time-consuming trial-and-error processes to identify the most suitable vector for protein expression, significantly reducing development costs and accelerating R&D progress.

Dr. Guo Haotian stated that, compared to the options currently available on the market,Tens ofa range of commercial vectors, Ailurus Biotechnology’s vector library encompasses100 billion+vector DNA, and vast amounts of experimental data are driving machine learning models to continuously design new vector sequences. Overall, the selection space is ten orders of magnitude larger than that of traditional approaches. In terms of cost,Ailurus vec™ A single experimental throughput test can cost as low as RMB 5.2, significantly lower than the testing costs in traditional laboratories.This represents a dual enhancement in both efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Just yesterday, Ginkgo Bioworks, the leading U.S. synthetic biology platform company, followed suit by releasing its Cell Development Kit (CDK) for protein expression. However, it currently includes only 100,000 vector systems, requires a one-year delivery timeline, and has a starting price of $100,000. Compared to the previous generation of platform companies centered on biofoundries, Ailurus Biotechnology has demonstrated superior technological and product capabilities.

Since the launch of its first product, Ailurus Biotechnology has successively received paid orders from laboratories at top-tier Chinese universities such as Tsinghua University and ShanghaiTech University. Meanwhile, it has provided free testing services to multiple teams participating in the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competition and the International Directed Evolution Competition (iDEC). In October alone, the company delivered 200,000 experimental data sets, garnering positive market feedback. Looking ahead, Ailurus Biotechnology aims to continue along its current business development path by identifying and assessing common industry needs, thereby continuously researching, developing, and launching new standardized platform products.

The founding team of Ailurus Biotechnology consists of young scientists born in the 1990s with interdisciplinary backgrounds. In the 2020 Autumn Startup Camp of MiraclePlus, the Ailurus Biotechnology team had the youngest average founder age among all participating teams.

[Editor’s Note: MiraclePlus was founded in 2018 by Dr. Qi Lu (former President and COO of Baidu, Executive Vice President of Microsoft, and Executive Vice President of Yahoo). Its predecessor was YC China (YC is a world-leading early-stage investment accelerator). The firm primarily focuses on investing in and accelerating early-stage, technology-driven startups, as well as building an entrepreneurial community.]

Guo Haotian, Founder and CEO of Ailurus Biotechnology, he graduated from the Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity (CRI) in Paris with a major in Frontier Biology and earned his Ph.D. from Université de Paris. During his doctoral studies, Dr. Guo Haotian worked as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at TaMaRa's Lab, one of the birthplaces of systems biology. The laboratory’s founder, Miroslav Radman, is a member of Academia Europaea, the French Academy of Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He discovered and named the “SOS” response, pioneering the field of DNA damage repair. His doctoral supervisor, Professor Lindner, is a pioneer in bacterial senescence and one of Europe’s earliest synthetic biology scientists. His work on synthetic RNA scaffold technology, featured on the cover of Science in 2010, is now widely applied in downstream fields such as CRISPR and metabolic engineering. Previously, during his master’s studies, Guo Haotian researched microbial population dynamics in the Department of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He completed his undergraduate studies in Life Sciences at Fudan University. Currently, Guo Haotian also serves as an elite mentor for the Tsien Hsue-shen Class at Tsinghua University and Shenzhen Zero One College.

Jiang Shan, Co-founder and COO of the CompanyAt just 21 years old, Jiang Shan is an undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh, where he studies biophysics and bacterial physiology under Professor Teuta Pilizota at the Centre for Synthetic Biology and Systems Biology. His journey in synthetic biology began in high school, when he worked under Dr. Chenli Liu, Director of the Institute of Synthetic Biology at the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2020, Jiang Shan co-founded the International Directed Evolution Competition (iDEC) with friends and has also served as a member of the Engineering Committee for the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competition.

Like most founding members of synthetic biology startups, the two founders connected through the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competition. Dr. Guo Haotian has served as a judge for the iGEM Competition since 2017. Jiang Shan led his team to win the Grand Prize at the 2018 iGEM Competition and served as Chairman (2019–2020) of CCiC (Conference of China iGEMer Community), the largest synthetic biology networking community in China. In 2020, shortly after earning his PhD, Dr. Guo returned to China with a strong passion for translating technological achievements into commercial products. During this period, he met Jiang Shan, who shared similar entrepreneurial aspirations. The two friends, who had known each other for many years through iGEM, quickly found common ground and embarked on their entrepreneurial journey, adopting a more proactive and open mindset along with flexible and efficient execution strategies.

“We pursue simplicity and elegance, and we believe that there is always a more efficient solution to every problem,” said Dr. Guo Haotian. They are diligently seeking the “optimal solution” to problems.Whether it isA. vec From the R&D process to the choice of the Synbiopunk conference format, every decision not only reflects the accumulation of this team’s knowledge and experience but also demonstrates their courage to break conventions and their relentless pursuit of breakthroughs.

“We strongly encourage our team members to ‘think outside the box’ and pursue ‘bold’ ideas in order to continuously seek new breakthroughs,” said Dr. Guo Haotian. He explained that Ailurus Biotechnology was founded with the original intention of driving innovation from the source, which requires everyone to possess sufficient creativity to efficiently complete product design and iteration with technological support. Meanwhile, thanks to the enabling capabilities of the platform itself, the trial-and-error costs for researchers conducting experiments are relatively low, allowing the company to tolerate mistakes.

Overall, the company’s cultural atmosphere and values are well aligned with its business development model. “‘Breaking the mold’ is not a deliberate act; rather, it is the outcome of our team’s grasp of underlying logic and careful deliberation.”

Regarding the definition of a platform-based company, the Ailurus Biotechnology team believes that, as Bill Gates stated,A platform should enable all its users to create value that exceeds the value of the platform company itself.In the synthetic biology industry chain, platform companies serve as upstream nodes, providing various tool support and technical services to traditional biotech enterprises in areas such as design, production, and supply. “Frontline developers in the lab can leverage these tools and services to accelerate R&D, reduce costs, and minimize repetitive labor,” said Dr. Guo Haotian.

Whether it is the series of ultra-high-throughput experimental platforms currently under development, or communication forums such as the Synbiopunk Bio-Developer Conference held this time, Ailurus Biotechnology aims to enable all future biological product designs to integrate into the entire industrial chain through its own platforms, allowing products and platforms to jointly drive the rapid development of the industry. “The capabilities of any single enterprise or research institution are limited; the efficiency of a vast industrial ecosystem represents a qualitative improvement over that of individual companies,” said Dr. Guo Haotian.

From the market prospects of platform-based enterprises, the two representative platform companies that went public in 2021—Ginkgo Bioworks, a synthetic biology service platform, and NRGene, a genomic data analysis platform—have currently reached market capitalizations of $26 billion and $19 billion, respectively. How will Ailurus Biotechnology, positioned as a platform-based synthetic biology enterprise, subsequently paint the ideal blueprint for the “IT-ization” of biotech? We wait and see.