Interesting company (private), possibly worth keeping an eye on for low cost protein production -
phytomedics.com
Recombinant protein drugs and diagnostic agents are one of the fastest growing segments of the pharmaceutical industry generating $20 billion in annual revenues. REPOST is a cost-effective, proprietary platform technology that harnesses the biosynthetic capacity of green plants to produce recombinant proteins. This method allows continuous and non-destructive recovery of these proteins from a living plant. Recombinant proteins produced in multicellular eukaryotic systems such as plants, are more likely to retain the correct post-translational processing required for biological activity. Also, recombinant biopharmaceutical proteins purified from root or leaf exudates are less likely to be contaminated with pathogenic viruses, which may be present in the milk or urine of transgenic animals. The plant protein phytosecretion system is easy to scale up and is less sensitive to the cytotoxicity of the final products. Phytomedics, together with Rutgers University, has developed two subsets of REPOST:
* RHIZOSECRETION™ exploits the ability of a hydroponically cultivated green plant to continuously secrete (exude) large quantities of recombinant proteins from its roots into a simple aqueous medium. Rhizosecretion is currently used by Phytomedics to manufacture recombinant proteins in tobacco and tomato.
* PHYLLOSECRETION™ exploits leaf guttation as a medium to continuously “wash away” recombinant proteins from a living plant. Guttation fluid, commonly known as “dew”, is exuded by plants every morning and can be transformed into a concentrated solution of recombinant proteins.
REPOST offers a low-cost, large-scale recombinant protein production system with simplified downstream processing. The yield of a recombinant protein produced by this technology may, over time, exceed the weight of the plant producing it. The Phytomedics team has successfully teed REPOST on human, invertebrate, viral and microbial proteins. |
