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Therapeutic Proteins

Custom Protein & Peptide Production | Therapeutic Proteins | Licensing our Technology
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With the success of major biotherapeutics such as erythropoeitin, embrel, rituxamab, interferon 1, and others, therapeutic proteins are becoming increasingly important in the development pipeline of most pharmaceutical companies. Unfortunately, many promising agents are abandoned due to excessive production costs, product heterogeneity, and variable activity. SUMO-fusion technology offers an answer to each of these problems. We, and others, have consistently found that fusion of the protein of interest to SUMO leads to a dramatic increase in the expression level and solubility of the target protein in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic expression systems. The inclusion of a His6 tag on the N-terminus of SUMO provides the means for developing a rapid, generic purification strategy. The exquisite specificity and robustness of SUMO proteases provides the ability to generate a homogeneous N-terminus on the target protein with the exact amino acid desired. Finally, the increased yields and simplified process development more than mitigate the cost of the enzyme used in removing SUMO and actually lead to a reduction in overall cost of goods. No other system is as efficient as SUMO-fusion to generate biologically active proteins as SUMO fusion system (See Publications).

The Advantages: Many therapeutic protein projects are shelved due to increase cost of production or in ability to develop an efficient process for clinical trials. There is also a misnomer that expression of fusion protein increases steps for process development and cost of production. To the contrary our studies have shown that SUMO mediated expression dramatically enhances the level of expression in eukaryotes and prokaryotes. Since SUMO contains a 6-His tag at the N-terminus, the purification is simplified and cost of production is decreased. In one instance the expression level was increased twenty fold. Presence of SUMO facilitated rapid purification and decreased the overall cost of the product.

Problem Solving: Many therapeutic proteins, including the large cytokine and chemokine families, require a native N-terminus for biological activity. With the advent of SUMO technology, it is possible to produce large quantities of biologically active proteins in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic systems with desired N-terminus.

Team Approach and Technology Transfer: LifeSensors will work with you to identify and develop the appropriate SUMO expression system that is most effective for your therapeutic protein. LifeSensors can bring its in house team to bear on the project by optimizing expression of the protein, identifying the best host for expression and developing a cost effective purification process. Furthermore, when working with LifeSensors, you will have access to newly developed technologies that are not yet available to the general public. Having patented many of the SUMO technologies we are in a position to apply our proprietary system to develop a complete solution approach for your protein. Please contact our business development team for further information.