After two years of incubation, Third Rock Ventures is launching Warp Drive Bio, which plans to use its proprietary genomics search engine to unlock the secrets of Mother Nature—potentially powerful therapeutics hidden within microbes.

Backed with $125 million and a strategic partnership with French drug giant Sanofi, the partnership aims to transform the discovery and development of natural product drugs using Warp Drive Bio’s proprietary technology and Sanofi’s natural products expertise.

Third Rock and Sanofi have launched the startup with initial financing of up to $125 million, $75 million of which will be an initial equity investment. The remaining $50 million is tied to the achievement of specified milestones. Greylock Partners is also participating in the financing. The funding is intended to meet the startup’s financial needs to develop its platform for at least the next five years and establish proof of concept. Sanofi, under the terms of the agreement, could acquire Warp Drive if certain milestones are achieved.

Warp Drive Bio’s founders include Gregory Verdine, professor of chemistry in Harvard University’s department of stem cell and regenerative biology and a venture partner at Third Rock Ventures, Harvard Medical School professor of genetics and genomics expert George Church, and UCSF professor of pharmaceutical chemistry and protein-protein interaction expert James Wells.

The company is pursuing critical biological pathways that are currently considered undruggable. Its premise is that nature is the world’s most powerful medicinal chemist and it is using a battery of novel technologies to access powerful drugs now hidden within microbes. Its proprietary “genomics search engine” can reveal the hidden natural products on the basis of their distinctive genomic signature. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company is also developing other technologies to induce the production of these novel drug candidates and to determine their mode of action, ultimately enabling Warp Drive Bio to convert genomes into drugs.

“Revolutionary advances in microbial genomics have provided the blueprints for nature’s factories that assemble natural products and have revealed vast treasure troves of novel natural product drugs hidden within microbes,” says Verdine. “Prior to Warp Drive Bio, no one had created a comprehensive discovery engine that selectively mines from nature those products with transformative pharmaceutical potential. Warp Drive Bio has developed that capability and is using it to discover powerful next-generation drugs that target the central circuitry of human cells in completely new ways.”

The partnership with Sanofi, though, does not hinder Warp Drive Bio’s ability to act as an independent company and pursue other partnerships to advance its programs.

“This innovative collaboration between Sanofi and Third Rock Ventures provides the opportunity to build significant value and the potential for venture capital levels of return,” says Alexis Borisy, a partner at Third Rock Ventures and interim CEO of Warp Drive Bio. “Importantly, it also enables us to advance and accelerate the development of our proprietary genomics platform, unlock ‘nature’s drugs’ and, ultimately, create breakthrough therapies for patients.”