Almac in Northern Ireland and VTU Technology in Austria have teamed up to offer joint services for the expression of recombinant proteins with site-specific modification and labeling such as PEGylation for half-life extension of proteins.
Previously, Almac developed technology for C-terminal modification of recombinant proteins, which can be applied to the generation of PEGylated proteins for half life extension, labeled proteins for PET and SPECT imaging, engineered and bispecific proteins.
Currently available protein labeling technologies produce products labeled at multiple sites in an uncontrolled manner and this results in a heterogeneous population of labeled molecules resulting in a net decrease in potency compared to the unlabeled analogue.
According to Almac, its approach allows the specific labeling site to be selected and controlled and generates a homogeneous labeled product in good yield, while retaining biological activity.
VTU Technology and Almac have recently completed a case study to prove the applicability of Almac's PEGylation technology to proteins produced through secreted expression from Pichia pastoris.
The Almac-VTU Technology partnership provides benefits to biopharmaceutical companies, which seek fast-track protein expression, process development and subsequent site-specific protein modification.
