🔬 These proteins change shape when they bind a specific nutrient, such as glucose.
💡 This new technology offers advantages over enzymatic sensors, including better selectivity and sensitivity, and the ability to track multiple nutrients.
💰 The system has attracted interest from the biopharmaceutical industry and technology sector for commercialization.
📚 The binding proteins can be used to track other nutrients beyond glucose, expanding their potential applications.
👩🔬 The researchers have patents and know-how available for licensing.
Introduction:
The article discusses the limitations of enzymatic glucose sensors used in nutrient monitoring for the manufacture of biopharmaceuticals. It introduces a potential alternative technology based on periplasmic binding proteins that could address these limitations and improve nutrient monitoring in the biopharma industry.
- Enzymatic glucose sensors used in nutrient monitoring have limitations such as dependence on oxygen levels, poor selectivity, and low sensitivity.
- Periplasmic binding proteins offer a potential alternative technology for nutrient monitoring.
- These proteins change shape when they bind to a ligand, such as glucose, and this change is measured using optical instrumentation.
- Periplasmic protein-based sensors have several advantages over enzymatic sensors, including enhanced sensitivity, reusable sensors, and no substrate consumption.
- The technology has attracted interest from the biopharmaceutical industry and may have applications for tracking other nutrients as well.
Conclusion:
The development of periplasmic protein-based sensors offers a potential solution to the limitations of enzymatic glucose sensors in nutrient monitoring for biopharmaceutical manufacturing. The technology’s advantages, including enhanced sensitivity and reusability, make it a promising alternative for the industry. Additionally, the potential to track other nutrients expands the application of this technology in biopharmaceutical production.
