( For the first time scientists have eng...)GlycoFi and Dartmouth report full humanization of yeast glycosylation pathway in Science

For the first time, scientists have engineered yeast cells capable of producing a broad repertoire of recombinant therapeutic proteins with fully human sugar structures (glycosylation). These sugar structures ensure a glycoprotein's biological activity and half-life and to date, have necessitated the expression of therapeutic glycoproteins in mammalian hosts. The accomplishment reported today has the potential to eliminate the need for mammalian cell culture, while improving control over glycosylation, and improving performance characteristics of many therapeutic proteins.

Scientists from GlycoFi, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., and their collaborators at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center published their report detailing the genetic engineering of the yeast Pichia pastoris to secrete human glycoproteins with fully complex, terminally sialyated N-glycans today in the September 8, 2006 issue of the journal Science. To demonstrate the utility of the engineered yeast strains, recombinant erythropoietin (Epo), a protein that stimulates the production of red blood cells, was expressed, purified and its activity demonstrated in vivo.

"Re-engineering the yeast glycosylation system to fully replicate the full repertoire of human glycosylation reactions has been a challenging six year effort that many doubted could be accomplished," said Tillman Gerngross, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of GlycoFi and professor of Bioengineering at Dartmouth College.

"This achievement required both the elimination of yeast-specific glycosylation reactions and the introduction of 14 heterologous genes, making this one of the most complex cellular engineering endeavors reported to date", said Stephen Hamilton, Ph.D., the lead author of the study and a senior scientist at GlycoFi.

Yeast offers numerous advantages as a recombinant protein expression system when compared to mammalian cell culture. These include the capability
'"/>

Source:JKureczka@comcast.net

Page: 1 2
Related biology news :

1. GlycoFi announces the first production of antibodies with human glycosylation in yeast
2. Dartmouth study finds that arsenic inhibits DNA repair
3. Octopuses occasionally stroll around on two arms, UC Berkeley biologists report
4. Surprising findings reported about iron overload
5. Researchers report new pro-inflammatory role for anti-inflammatory enzyme
6. Biochemists report discovery of structure of major piece of telomerase; implications for cancer
7. Leprosy genome tells story of human migrations, French researchers report in Science
8. Novel live reporting system to track cells
9. Biased reporting found in cancer prognostic studies
10. New lead reported in tumor angiogenesis
11. Researchers report breakthrough against world’s deadliest viruses