DeNovoLabs — Designing enzymes for the world's hardest chemistry

The Problem

Forever chemicals are everywhere — and built to last.

PFAS are a class of synthetic chemicals prized for their durability. That same durability makes them persistent, mobile, and remarkably difficult to destroy once they enter the environment.

01

Engineered around the C–F bond

PFAS are defined by carbon–fluorine bonds — among the strongest single bonds in organic chemistry. The very feature that makes them useful is what makes them nearly indestructible.

02

Persistent and widespread

Because they resist natural breakdown, PFAS accumulate in water, soil, and living tissue over time, spreading far from where they were first released.

03

Today we mostly move the problem

Most current approaches capture and concentrate PFAS rather than destroy them — shifting the burden downstream instead of eliminating it.

C–F BOND DISSOCIATION

≈485kJ/mol

Among the strongest single bonds in organic chemistry — the structural reason PFAS resist conventional breakdown.

10,000+

distinct PFAS compounds in use across industry

Industry estimate

Decades+

estimated environmental persistence without intervention

Industry estimate

Why Now

Four curves are converging.

Designing a protein to do something nature never asked it to do was, until recently, out of reach. Several independent advances now make it tractable.

01

AI protein design

Generative models now design proteins toward a target function, compressing what used to take years of trial and error into computation.

02

In-silico screening

Candidate designs can be ranked and triaged computationally — so experimental effort goes to the most promising before a single sample is made.

03

Cheap synthesis & automation

Gene synthesis and automated wet-labs make each design–build–test cycle faster and far less expensive than it once was.

04

Regulatory pull

Tightening global limits on PFAS are turning genuine destruction — not just capture — from a preference into a requirement.

Our Vision

Biology as a programmable layer for environmental and industrial chemistry.

Enzymes already run the most precise chemistry on Earth. We believe they can be designed deliberately — directed at problems evolution never had reason to solve.

The Platform

A repeatable design–build–test engine.

We are building a platform, not a single molecule. Three tightly-coupled pillars turn a chemical challenge into a candidate enzyme — and improve it with each pass.

Step 01 · Design

Computational design

We specify a target reaction and design candidate enzymes in silico, exploring sequence and structure space far faster than the lab alone allows.

Step 02 · Build & Test

Experimental validation

Promising candidates move to the wet lab to be expressed and characterized — grounding computational predictions in measured results.

Step 03 · Learn

Iterative optimization

Experimental data feeds back into design. Each cycle sharpens our models and moves candidates closer to the performance a real-world application needs.

Design → Build → Test → Learn ↺

A platform, not a single molecule.

Flagship Program · PFAS

Why we started with the hardest target.

PFAS are urgent, global, and chemically unforgiving — exactly the kind of problem our platform is built for. Proving the approach here is the clearest test of what programmable enzymes can do.

Current stage

Wet-lab validation in progress

With computational proof-of-concept complete, our PFAS program is now in wet-lab validation. We are not claiming a working PFAS-degrading enzyme today — we are testing our designs experimentally to build the evidence toward one.

Flagship validation target

PFOAA representative, well-characterized PFAS compound for our first validation milestone.

Foundation

Platform & target selection

Established the design–build–test approach and selected PFAS — with PFOA as the flagship validation target — as the first proving ground.

Complete

Computational proof-of-concept

Designed and computationally evaluated candidate enzymes against the flagship target, building the case for experimental work.

In progress

Wet-lab validation

Expressing and characterizing leading candidates with validation partners to test predictions against measured activity.

Goal

Iterate toward real-world performance

Use experimental results to refine designs cycle over cycle — the aim being enzymes effective under realistic conditions.

Team

Built by people who know hard chemistry.

A small, focused founding team — and a clear picture of the specialists and partners we are building toward.

Shashank Gupta

Founder & CEO

Sets the company's direction and strategy, leading DeNovoLabs as it builds its enzyme-design platform and partnerships.

Dr. Leo Hernani Silvestre

Chief Scientific Officer

Cambridge-trained in computational chemistry and biochemistry, leading the scientific approach behind our enzyme-design work.

Cedric Morin

Chief Financial Officer

Leads finance and operations, structuring the funding and partnerships that carry the platform from the lab toward real-world impact.

Building toward — key hires & advisors

Enzymology

Mechanism, kinetics, and assay design for candidate enzymes.

Protein expression

Producing and purifying designed proteins for testing.

Analytical chemistry

Rigorous detection and measurement of reaction outcomes.

Environmental partnerships

Real-world context, samples, and routes to deployment.

Contact · Partner

Let's design what nature didn't.

We're talking with investors, grant bodies, and wet-lab validation partners who want to help turn programmable enzymes into a tool for the world's hardest chemistry.

Investors backing deeptech with planetary-scale upside.

Grant bodies funding work on persistent pollutants and enzyme technology.

Wet-lab partners with expression, assay, or analytical capabilities.

Or email us directly hello@denovolabs.eu

Name

Please enter your name.

Email

Please enter a valid email.

Organisation

Please tell us your organisation.

I'm reaching out as

Please choose an option.

Message

Please add a short message.

Thank you — message sent.

We'll be in touch shortly. For anything time-sensitive, reach us at hello@denovolabs.eu.

Designing enzymes for the world's hardest chemistry.