Company Snapshot: Making Nature's Chemistry Programmable
Humankind owes an enormous debt to nature: over millions of years, it has developed highly complex chemical molecules that became the foundation of modern life. Medicines, crop protection, and many other essential products are based on natural products. Among them are antibiotics such as penicillin that help us survive bacterial infections, and immunosuppressants such as ciclosporin that made organ transplants possible. In total, nature has generated hundreds of thousands of diverse and active molecules, and products derived from this chemistry support the health and food supply of billions of people worldwide.
Nature’s chemistry matters because it delivers a diversity and function that human-designed chemistry struggles to match. The life sciences industry has long tried to harness this potency, but it remains constrained by what exists in nature and what can be practically found and sourced. As natural resources become harder to access and discovery yields diminish, natural product discovery increasingly runs into biological, ecological, and economic limits.
Myria Biosciences expands the accessible design space by orders of magnitude. We are revolutionizing how natural products are discovered and produced. Myria is a molecule creation engine: based on non-ribosomal peptides, one of the most successful natural product classes, we make nature's chemistry programmable using AI-guided biosynthesis to design and produce on-demand artificial natural products for pharma, agribusiness, and beyond.
We are a Basel-based spin-off from four leading research institutions: the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology (MPI, Marburg), the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS, Saarbrücken), ETH Zurich, and Goethe University Frankfurt. Myria operates from Basel with additional sites in Saarbrücken (Germany) and Edinburgh (UK). Following a pre-seed investment in Q1 2024, Myria is advancing its platform alongside an emerging internal pipeline and partner-facing projects, and is raising a bridge round to reach seed readiness, with a seed round planned for late 2026.
The Problem: Natural Resources are Limited
Natural products underpin much of modern medicine and crop protection because they deliver potent biological activity that is hard to replicate with traditional chemistry. The problem is that discovery is constrained by what nature has already made and what can be found, sampled, and sourced: if nature hasn’t made it, we can’t use it.
This creates a structural bottleneck: when the pool of discoverable molecules is finite and increasingly exhausted, innovation slows. Breakthroughs become harder to find, timelines stretch, and costs rise - not because the need is smaller, but because access to genuinely novel molecules is scarce. As a result, urgent challenges, from unmet medical needs to emerging plant pathogens, can outpace the industry’s ability to consistently identify new solutions.
What is missing is a scalable way to move beyond “mining nature” and instead apply nature’s design principles to create and produce new molecules on demand, tailored to specific applications and ready for modern discovery workflows.
Our Solution: A Proprietary Engine for “Artificial Natural Products”
Myria makes nature's chemistry programmable by turning natural products into a designable source of new molecules. Instead of relying on what happens to exist in nature, we create artificial natural products: new molecules inspired by nature's principles and evolved knowledge, but generated on demand and freely designed for human applications.
At the core, we use AI to learn nature's chemical language and then apply this to reprogram the biosynthetic machinery of nature. This opens access to a trillion-scale (1012) design space of artificial natural products. With our proprietary technology, we can reliably and efficiently produce molecules individually or as large libraries, from thousands to the million-compound range depending on design constraints and readout. This exceeds the number of known natural products by orders of magnitude: while approximately 200,000 natural products have been found in nature, Myria can run a single experiment in which millions of artificial natural products are made.
The result is a highly productive engine for on-demand molecules that traditional natural product discovery and human chemistry cannot provide. For our industry partners, we deliver libraries of such artificial natural products and develop and optimize molecules into application-ready candidates.
What We Deliver: Innovative Molecules for Unmet Need
Myria serves customers in pharma, biotech, and agribusiness who need differentiated molecules for discovery and product development. We generate libraries of artificial natural products in two formats:
Virtual libraries: We provide virtual libraries containing designs for trillions of artificial natural products - molecules that resemble natural products but are not found in nature. Partners can integrate these libraries into computational screening and prioritization workflows to identify the most promising candidates. Myria then produces selected molecules and ships them for experimental testing.
Custom-designed molecules and focused libraries: We design and produce custom artificial natural products tailored to a partner’s specific application. These are delivered as individual compounds or as focused libraries for experimental testing at the customer’s site.
In addition, Myria makes its artificial natural product libraries available to contract research organizations (CROs) and academic labs, integrating our compounds into established screening programs and expanding the reach and impact of our platform.
Beyond delivering molecules and libraries to partners, Myria uses the same engine to build an internal pipeline. We generate and advance proprietary programs against disease-relevant targets, develop drug candidates, and seek partnerships at defined inflection points to capture attractive upside.
This approach allows Myria to compound value over time by combining scalable molecule generation with a growing portfolio of proprietary and partnered compounds.
Why now? The Time is Ripe for AI-guided Bioproduction
Nature has always been the best chemist, but until recently, we could not read and use nature's instructions at the scale needed to make its chemistry programmable. That has changed for four reasons:
First, the data is finally here. Reading DNA, the universal alphabet of life, has become fast and inexpensive, and the amount of biological information available is growing rapidly.
Second, AI can now learn from the complex biosynthetic language encoded in DNA and reliably redesign it. We can extract patterns from high-dimensional biological data that are not accessible to human reasoning, including structure-function relationships learned directly from sequence and scaled across millions of proteins. This creates a unique opportunity to train models not just on the knowledge of humankind, but on the "knowledge of nature" embedded in DNA. Learning how nature makes the chemistry we have relied on for decades suddenly becomes possible.
Third, sustainable bioproduction is becoming increasingly attractive as it reduces carbon footprints and improves the environmental profile of production. Once molecules can be made biologically, production can shift from multi-step chemical synthesis toward fermentation-style processes that run under milder conditions and can be fed by renewable inputs. The ability to design molecules and produce them biologically turns green chemistry from an aspiration into a practical route that can align innovation with footprint reduction.
Fourth, the pull from innovators is strong. Industry increasingly needs access to truly novel, nature-like chemical diversity because many challenges cannot be solved with the limited set of molecules that existing discovery and synthesis approaches repeatedly converge on.
Market Potential: Accessing a Blockbuster Market
The pharma, biotech, and agribusiness markets are highly innovation-driven, with persistent unmet needs continuously creating demand for new products. In pharma and biotech, this includes areas such as oncology, immunology/inflammation, and neurology. In agribusiness, it includes crop pests and diseases, resistance to existing products, and climate related stress on crops (for example drought or heat).
When these needs are addressed successfully, the commercial outcomes can be highly attractive. In pharma, drugs can generate billions in lifetime revenue, with blockbusters exceeding $1 billion in annual sales. In agribusiness, successful products can exceed $500 million in annual sales over their commercial lifespan. Across both markets, commercial success starts with the same prerequisite, a differentiated molecule that can be developed into a product.
That economic potential is reflected in large, recurring research and development budgets (R&D) that fund the creation of new products. Large pharma R&D expenditure alone reached approximately $190 billion in 2024, and in agribusiness, leading crop protection and seed players invest multiple billions each year to keep portfolios effective and competitive.
At the same time, the way innovation enters these portfolios has shifted. A growing share of breakthrough ideas and innovative solutions originates outside incumbents, from startups, academic spinouts, and specialist technology companies. As a result, large pharma and agribusiness increasingly access innovation through partnerships, licensing, and acquisitions, because it can be faster and more effective than relying only on internal R&D.
This dynamic is attractive for Myria because it creates clear, partner-driven pathways to adopt external innovation early and to fund it through development. Myria can engage customers at multiple points, from supplying molecules for screening, to funded collaboration programs, to later-stage partnering. These pathways can generate near-term revenue through paid access and co-development, and can also enable participation in downstream value when partnered molecules progress toward commercial products.
For this, Myria serves three core customer groups:
(1) pharma and biotech discovery programs, including oncology, immunology, neurology, and other therapeutic areas requiring new chemical starting points.
(2) agribusiness, including crop protection, biostimulants, and disease resistance programs seeking innovative molecules.
(3) discovery partners such as CROs, screening providers, and molecule library providers who integrate Myria’s molecules into their services for customers.
Business Model: Converting Market Demand into Scalable Revenue
The path from innovative molecules to high-value products creates several points where Myria can capture value. Our business model is built around industry-standard partnership structures that generate near-term revenue while preserving attractive upside when programs progress.
Commercial engagements typically start with fast, low-friction entry points: paid pilot projects, library access, and delivery of selected molecules for screening. These initial projects usually sit in the tens to low hundreds of thousands CHF and are designed to prove fit and generate early results. Successful pilots typically progress into follow-on work to refine and expand promising molecules, for example through focused sets of related molecules and additional testing support, typically in the low hundreds of thousands CHF.
As programs gain traction, Myria can step into deeper, funded co-development, where we work alongside a partner on one or more agreed programs. These collaborations are commonly structured as annual research funding, often in the range of CHF 0.2 to 2 million per year and can be expanded in scope as milestones are met.
Additionally, when programs move toward development, value capture shifts from only research funding to downstream participation. Partnering structures can include upfront payments (often single-digit to low double-digit millions), development and regulatory milestones (which can reach high double-digit to triple-digit millions for successful products), and royalties on net sales (often 2 to 10%). This creates a clear link between Myria’s early contribution, differentiated molecules, and participation in later commercial outcomes.
In parallel, Myria will build a selective internal pipeline in pharma and agribusiness. These internal programs showcase the platform on commercially meaningful opportunities, create additional leverage in partner discussions, and can be transferred at defined maturity points via licensing, trade sale, or similar routes. Together, this combination of early revenue streams and later-stage upside enables Myria to scale and retain exposure to the biggest value inflection points.
The Team: Deep Scientific and Commercial Expertise
Myria is led by its founding team: Steven Schmitt (CEO), Kenan Bozhueyuek (CSO), and Irene Wuethrich (COO). Steven is a biologist trained at ETH Zurich, where he developed Myria’s high-throughput screening technology, and brings translational experience as an ETH Pioneer Fellow in bioengineered natural products. Kenan is a bioinformatician from the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS), specializing in biosynthetic gene cluster engineering and NRPS/PKS engineering, with multiple patents and publications. Irene is a biotechnologist and molecular biologist with a PhD from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research (MIT) and experience in biosynthetic and natural product pharmaceuticals, including as an ETH Pioneer Fellow.
Myria is supported by experienced academic and industry leadership. Prof. Dr. Helge Bode (Academic co-founder) is Director of the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology and a leading expert in microbial natural product biosynthesis. Dr. Martin Held (Academic co-founder) is an ETH Zurich scientist with broad expertise in biotechnology and translational research and has contributed to the creation of multiple startups. Dr. Katerina Leftheris (Scientific advisor) is a drug discovery leader with 25+ years of experience across biotech and pharma and 15+ compounds advanced into clinical development. Prof. Dr. Ralf Wagner (Co-founding advisor) is a biotech entrepreneur with experience from company formation through IPO.
Together, the team combines seasoned biotech science from leading European research environments with an entrepreneurial, execution-driven track record in translating platform capabilities into partner-ready outputs.
Traction and Bridge Rationale: Positioning Myria for Seed Financing
Since its pre-seed round in Q1 2024, Myria has executed against plan and reduced key platform risks. Progress is supported by both external and internal validation:
We initiated an industry collaboration with Evotec, a leading global drug discovery and development partner, which will integrate Myria’s artificial natural product libraries into offerings for its industry customers.
We have seen growing inbound interest from computational screening companies, molecule library providers, and agribusiness partners.
We secured additional non-dilutive grant funding to accelerate platform development.
Operationally, Myria has demonstrated that it can move from computer-designed molecules to real, testable compounds and generate early evidence that they behave as intended. In parallel, the team has broadened the range of molecules the platform can produce and established initial in-house testing to speed up iteration and decision-making.
Building on this progress, Myria is moving from proving the platform works to proving it can generate investable programs and revenue. To be seed-ready, we will demonstrate two things: first, that at least one internal program can produce clear experimental results against a defined disease target, and second, that partner interest converts into repeatable, paid projects.
The bridge round is designed to deliver this evidence and close the seed-readiness gap by the end of 2026 through three workstreams:
Advance an internal lead program (VEGFR2, oncology). Myria will move the VEGFR2 program from computer-designed starting points to experimentally tested molecules, with the goal of demonstrating measurable activity in industry-standard assays.
Add a key drug-like feature requested by partners. Myria will expand the platform’s ability to produce molecules with improved membrane-crossing properties, a common requirement for orally available drugs. The team will do this by integrating N-methylation, a feature frequently found in high-value natural products.
Convert market pull into revenue. Myria will expand its partner-ready computational library and translate the existing collaboration and inbound interest into first revenue-generating projects.
Together, these workstreams are intended to deliver the experimental and commercial proof needed to support a seed round and position Myria for institutional investment.