Researchers used x-ray technology to examine the structure of the enzyme, which changes depending on its function.

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"It's a numbers game, " says David Baltimore, a Nobel laureate and codiscoverer of an enzyme that helps HIV replicate, who heads the California Institute of Technology.

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Codexis's technology works with pharmaceutical precision indeed, one of its main commercial products is the enzyme system for making the chemical precursor to Lipitor, a cholesterol-lowering drug that is marketed by Pfizer.

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