Technology Tour
Neugenesis' proprietary technologies offer novel
economical solutions to expensive problems.
This section introduces you to all the things that our systems can do.
IMPROVEMENT AND PRODUCTION OF RECOMBINANT HETEROMERIC PROTEINS USING NEUGENESIS'
ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGIES. An introduction of Neugenesis' technologies
and applications.
DIVERSIFICATION OF HETEROLOGOUS GENES IN NEUROSPORA. Poster Presentation
from The 20th Fungal Genetics Conference at Asilomar, March 23-28, 1999,
depicting the novel in vivo gene scrambling system. Illustration
Protein Expression Technology
The most common methods to manufacture pharmaceutical proteins are bacterial and mammalian cell culture. Many proteins can be produced adequately using one of these methods. More complex proteins, however, such as human monoclonal antibodies, are difficult and/or prohibitively expensive to produce in large quantities using current methods. In response to this need, Neugenesis has developed protein expression systems which combine the cost advantages of bacterial expression with many of the desirable biological features of mammalian cell culture. Neugenesis' technology utilizes the filamentous fungus, Neurospora crassa as its host cell to produce recombinant proteins, and is particularly suited for complex, heteromeric proteins.
Expression of Heteromeric Proteins in Neurospora
The conventional recombinant approach to the production and assembly
of heteromeric proteins, such as monoclonal antibodies, has been to transform
the genes for both subunits into a single host cell. Transformed host
cells are then selected for production of the protein. Neugenesis' expression
technology enables a new alternative. Two individually transformed strains,
one producing high levels of the first subunit and one producing high
levels of the second subunit, are fused to form a multicellular, multinucleate
strain (heterokaryon), which produces both subunits, and processes them
into the intact molecule.
Important features of Neugenesis' protein expression technology include the ability to fold and trim complex mammalian proteins correctly, resulting in bioactivity. The systems can add sugar residues to secreted proteins, thus producing N- and O-linked glycoproteins. The expression strains are exceptionally stable and are designed to secrete these proteins into inexpensive liquid media, which contains no animal serum or other potential product contaminants. This makes downstream processing and purification extraordinarily simple and inexpensive, resulting in a low overall cost structure. The expression system has no known viruses, and produces no toxins or harmful secondary metabolites.
Neugenesis' technology produces small and large proteins, including heteromeric proteins such as human monoclonal antibodies, certain hormones, and cell surface receptors. Relevant compounds produced in Neugenesis' systems include: a human cytokine (rhM-CSF), a human blood protein (HSA), a mammalian food processing enzyme (bovine chymosin), a mammalian hormone (porcine relaxin), a plant protein (zeamatin), and mammalian plasminogen activator (DSPA).