The workshop "Enzyme Expression in Pichia" was one of two selected workshops at this year's European Forum for Industrial Biotechnology and the Bioeconomy (EFIB 2015). The workshop organised by the EU-funded project OPTIBIOCAT brought together leading experts in this field of research from Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany. Scientists and industry experts discussed new developments in enzyme overproduction and showed their most recent findings and gave an overview on new methods, which allow for an optimisation of enzyme overproduction in Pichia strains.
The first talk was given by Prof Dr Anton Glieder from the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology in Graz, Austria. Prof Glieder gave an overview on the taxonomy of Pichia strains, as well as major available hosts and vector systems and explained how to use them. He also mentioned examples for products made in Pichia that are already on the market or in a late stage development and gave an interesting insight into the research carried out by his group and their latest findings.
Glieder was followed by Prof Dr Diethard Mattanovich from the University of Natural Resources & Life Sciences in Vienna, Austria. Prof Mattanovich listed positive features of P. pastoris when used as a platform for protein production. He showed results of his lab and explained the secretory pathway of P. pastoris and how different promoters can have a positive effect on secretion rates.
After the break, Prof Dr Karin Kovar from Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Waedenswil, Switzerland gave her talk on cultivation strategies for P. pastoris. She explained how different cultivation methods have an effect on the optimisation of the output of recombinant proteins and focused on particular aspects of recombinant protein production related to variations in biomass growth and their implications for strain design and screening, as well as on the concept of rational comparisons between cultivation systems for the development of specific production processes in bioreactors.
Prof Dr Patrick Fickers from the University of Liège in Gembloux, Belgium showed in his talk that his group has developed new processes to minimise drawbacks in protein productivity in P. pastoris. He explained how a co-feeding process based on sorbitol as a co-substrate can partly replace methanol during the induction phase and therefore leads to a higher productivity.
The final presentation was given by Dr Andreas Buthe from c-LEcta GmbH in Leipzig, Germany. Dr Buthe told the audience how Pichia is used as a production strain for the industrial production of enzymes at c-LEcta, e.g. food enzymes.
Contact Coordinator:
Prof. Vincenza Faraco
vfaraco(at)unina.it
Phone: +39 081674315/679895
University of Naples “Federico II”
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IT-80126 Napoli, Italy
Media Contact:
Annette Doerfel
press(at)optibiocat.eu
Phone: +49 30 2649 2171
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