Scaling up success: Novel enzymes produced by antibiotic-free fermentation technology are now in a routine supply.
Enzymicals and Syngulon present an update about their non-exclusive license agreement of May 2020 on the use of Syngulon’s antibiotic-free technology to produce enzymes. After successful completion of an R&D phase and the start of large-scale production, the developed enzyme products are now in a routine commercial stage. The expansion of internal production capacities as well as the extension of the use of the technology to new products is currently being planned.
The collaboration partners successfully scaled up the antibiotic-free production of recombinant enzymes up to a 500-liter fermentation scale followed by a downstream process adapted to process the respective quantities of biomass in the required quality. The use of the bacteriocin-based selection marker technology, combined with smart process engineering and a metal-chelate affinity-based purification system, were key to achieve the desired quantities in the required quality and purity. Fundamental basis for this was the careful selection of suitable sequences with high catalytic activity and promising producibility in the initial R&D phase and their seamless integration into bacteriocin-based vectors systems. Finally, a high yield of the target enzymes while reducing the overall production cost makes the process more efficient and cost-effective. The enzymes are now in a routine supply stage which means that the customer can rely on consistent quality and delivery times.
Dr. Erik de Vries, CEO of Enzymicals AG, states: “The biotechnology industry is constantly evolving, with new technologies and approaches emerging all the time. One of the keys to success in this industry is collaboration between different companies with complementary strengths and expertise. In this example, Syngulon focused on providing efficient selection marker technology and Enzymicals on enzyme and process development with scale-up. We successfully joined forces to bring novel enzymes to commercial production scale.”
Guy Hélin, CEO of Syngulon SA, added: ” It is always a pleasure to witness how our versatile, antibiotic-free selection technology can be adapted to a range of industrial contexts, from industrial biotech applications to pharmaceuticals, including the production of enzymes. Our fruitful and synergistic collaboration with Enzymicals is an excellent example. Following the implementation phase, they are now fully autonomous in their use of our technology.”
