The Future of Biomanufacturing | Michael Heltzen, eXoZymes
Episode
32 min
Read time
2 min
Topics
Health & Wellness, Relationships, Investing
AI-Generated Summary
Key Takeaways
- ✓Cell-Free Manufacturing Advantage: Traditional synthetic biology fails at scale because living cells actively resist overproduction, become toxic when pushed, and trap end products inside cellular material — making isolation costs exceed product value. eXoZymes removes the cell entirely, running enzymatic pathways as controlled biochemical reactions that perform equally well or better at larger production volumes.
- ✓NCT Metabolic Compound: eXoZymes' flagship molecule NCT activates mitochondrial activity to convert fat into energy, targeting a different mechanism than GLP-1 drugs, which suppress hunger signals. NCT exists naturally in black pepper but only in trace amounts — requiring an impractical volume of raw material per dose — making cell-free biosynthesis the only viable production route.
- ✓Brute-Force Evolution via AI: eXoZymes uses protein folding models to predict roughly 1,000 enzyme mutations per cycle, then builds and performance-tests all variants simultaneously using cell-free protein synthesis — no cell culturing required. Results feed back into the algorithm as reinforcement training, compressing billions of years of natural evolutionary iteration into approximately one week of lab work.
- ✓Cross-Kingdom Enzyme Substitution: When optimizing a biosynthetic pathway, eXoZymes identifies the specific chemical reaction causing a bottleneck, then searches entirely different biological kingdoms for an enzyme performing that same reaction. That enzyme is extracted, optimized into an "exozyme," and plugged into the pathway — treating biochemistry as modular, interchangeable chemistry rather than organism-specific biology.
- ✓Dual-Track Commercialization Strategy: eXoZymes pursues NCT simultaneously as an over-the-counter nutraceutical supplement and as a pharmaceutical candidate via licensing or venture partnerships with biotech or pharma companies. Two additional products are already in development, with a structured screening process evaluating candidates on market size, competitive landscape, and platform fit before committing resources.
What It Covers
Michael Heltzen, CEO of eXoZymes (Nasdaq), explains how his company manufactures complex natural compounds using cell-free enzymatic pathways combined with AI-driven protein engineering, with a lead product targeting metabolic health as both a nutraceutical and pharmaceutical candidate.
Key Questions Answered
- •Cell-Free Manufacturing Advantage: Traditional synthetic biology fails at scale because living cells actively resist overproduction, become toxic when pushed, and trap end products inside cellular material — making isolation costs exceed product value. eXoZymes removes the cell entirely, running enzymatic pathways as controlled biochemical reactions that perform equally well or better at larger production volumes.
- •NCT Metabolic Compound: eXoZymes' flagship molecule NCT activates mitochondrial activity to convert fat into energy, targeting a different mechanism than GLP-1 drugs, which suppress hunger signals. NCT exists naturally in black pepper but only in trace amounts — requiring an impractical volume of raw material per dose — making cell-free biosynthesis the only viable production route.
- •Brute-Force Evolution via AI: eXoZymes uses protein folding models to predict roughly 1,000 enzyme mutations per cycle, then builds and performance-tests all variants simultaneously using cell-free protein synthesis — no cell culturing required. Results feed back into the algorithm as reinforcement training, compressing billions of years of natural evolutionary iteration into approximately one week of lab work.
- •Cross-Kingdom Enzyme Substitution: When optimizing a biosynthetic pathway, eXoZymes identifies the specific chemical reaction causing a bottleneck, then searches entirely different biological kingdoms for an enzyme performing that same reaction. That enzyme is extracted, optimized into an "exozyme," and plugged into the pathway — treating biochemistry as modular, interchangeable chemistry rather than organism-specific biology.
- •Dual-Track Commercialization Strategy: eXoZymes pursues NCT simultaneously as an over-the-counter nutraceutical supplement and as a pharmaceutical candidate via licensing or venture partnerships with biotech or pharma companies. Two additional products are already in development, with a structured screening process evaluating candidates on market size, competitive landscape, and platform fit before committing resources.
Notable Moment
Heltzen recounts how eXoZymes' founding science originated from UCLA researchers who built a cell-based biofuels system, then privately acknowledged it would never scale — prompting their advisor to challenge them, half-jokingly, to simply remove the cell entirely. That offhand remark became a decade-long research program.
Episode Transcript
Today's episode is brought to you by scientist.com, the life science industry's leading R and D orchestration platform. Scientist.com gives researchers instant access to thousands of pre vetted suppliers, saving time, reducing costs, and accelerating innovation. Hi. I'm John Galliano, senior director of BioPharm Catalyst. Hello. I'm Chef, known as Chef Station, a twenty year vet in trading biotech stocks. And this is biotech bulls and breakthroughs. Biopharm Catalyst is not a registered investment advisory firm, and the views on this podcast are not intended to be financial advice. Guests on this podcast may hold the stocks discussed in personal or other investment accounts. This content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions. If you find the information on this podcast useful and would like more catalyst information, BioPharm Catalyst is your premier resource for catalyst data for over 1,000 publicly traded biotech companies. We track clinical trial based catalysts, everything from IND filings to drug data releases for phase one, two, and three trials to regulatory decisions. Our Catalyst Calendars are updated as soon as the press release comes out, so you can be sure you have the most timely and accurate information to inform your biotech trading. All of our plans come with a seven day free trial and we frequently run discounts on our platform, so check out www.biopharmcatalyst.com to get started today. Good morning, good e good good afternoon, good evening, depending on where you're joining us from. Welcome once again to another episode of biotech bulls and breakthroughs. Today is, Wednesday, 04/08/2026. We're really excited to have, Michael Hel Hilton on the line, from Exozymes, which is actually a publicly traded company that trades on Nasdaq, and specializes in, biomanufacturing, actually without using cells. The enzymes operate outside the cells, and we're gonna get into, a little bit on why that's important and sort of what the company does that that is unique, and why we think people should should care about this. So, welcome, Michael. Thanks so much for joining us. Yeah. Thank you for having me. I look forward to the conversation. Absolutely. So if you wouldn't mind just for the the folks on the call, just kinda give a bit quick background on yourself. I know that you're the CEO, but, you know, what is your what is your background? You know, how did you, how did you come to, to, to do what you're doing at ExoZyans? Yeah. Absolutely. Born and raised back in Denmark. That's where the accident's from. I basically, early on in life, had a a personality of being, like, super curious. I needed to know how everything worked. I had to take everything apart and see if I could reassemble it. I, just had a mind blowing experience when my dad brought home a computer and the whole computational world opened up. So I was one of these kids that started coding …
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