New study shows ecological benefits for enGenes Biotech -e^xpress technology

Vienna, Austria: – The patented enGenes-e^Xpress™ protein expression technology developed by recombinant proteins specialist CDMO enGenes Biotech GmbH (enGenes) turns out to have extra economic and environmental benefits, according to a new study.

The study ‘Economic and ecological benefits of leaky E. coli’ compiled by Technical University of Vienna (TU Wien) reveals that extracellular protein production with -e^Xpress resulted in a 25% reduction of costs and a 36% reduction of both water usage and water-related CO₂ emissions compared to intracellular production with the state-of-the-art host strain E. coli BL21(DE3).

Young scientists collaboration

The study was part of an ongoing collaboration between enGenes and TU Wien as part of the BRIDGE Young Scientists program, funded by the Austrian Research Agency (FFG; project #872643).

“This is significant new information for our existing and potential customers, partners, and collaborators concerned to reduce costs and minimize their carbon footprints,” commented enGenes CEO Juergen Mairhofer.

Reduced PMI and water-related energy impact

In his concluding remarks, the study’s lead author, Dr. Jens Kastenhofer, comments:

“Extracellular production of recombinant SpA with E. coli -e^Xpress resulted in a 25% reduction of cost of goods sold (COGS) and a 36% reduction of both process mass intensity (PMI) and Water Related Impact of Energy (WARIEN) for the upstream process, primary recovery and chromatographic capture.”

Eliminating need for homogenization

The study highlights -e^Xpress elimination of the homogenization step as significantly reducing capital costs and water consumption, adding to savings from reduced levels of host cell impurities in the feed for the anion exchange (AEX) chromatography capture step that improved binding capacity 2.7-fold compared to the intracellular production process.

“We postulate that extracellular protein production enhances utilization of chromatography resins due to less fouling by host cell impurities, further reducing costs and resource consumption. We conclude that E. coli -e^Xpress is a technology to reduce the economic and ecological impact of overall downstream processing,” the study concludes.

About enGenes Biotech

enGenes Biotech GmbH (enGenes) is a contract research, development and manufacturing company that provides leading edge technologies and production services focused on recombinant proteins in bacteria. The company’s mission is to provide cost-effective and scalable production of recombinant proteins at a fraction of current cost, allied to a vision of developing a world-class portfolio of cutting-edge protein production technologies, relevant to a broad spectrum of application fields.

enGenes has developed advanced technologies to drive more cost-effective recombinant protein production processes, including its proprietary enGenes-e^Xpress™ E. coli platform that achieves outstanding yields of soluble and active recombinant protein. enGenes-e^Xpress™ has been successfully applied for the manufacturing of enzymes and biopharmaceutical products that failed to give economically feasible yields in a conventional expression host.

enGenes Biotech offers development and manufacturing services tailored around the needs of pharmaceutical and industrial biotech companies. The services include expression strain and vector development, fermentation process development and optimization, downstream process development, production of purified protein, technology transfer and scale-up support with technology out-licensing and co-development opportunities.

Resources

Click on Economic and ecological benefits of a leaky E. coli strain for downstream processing of recombinant proteins to read full study.