Malvern, PA, USA – March 7, 2012. LifeSensors, Inc., developer and manufacturer of SUMO-fusion technology used to overcome bottlenecks in protein production, expands its intellectual property and protein expression portfolio with its patent, “Human SUMO-3 For Enhancing Protein Expression” (US 8,119,369 B2), awarded by the United States Patent and Trademark Office last week. The patent covers use of human SUMO-3 as a fusion partner to enhance the expression, solubility and stability of heterologous proteins. SUMOpro-3TM, based on the human SUMO-3 protein, is a valuable protein expression platform for expression in E. coli and eukaryotic host systems.
The Global Biosimilar Market 2010-2014 report from Research and Markets projects a US$ 19.4 Billion market size by 2014. Market growth is fueled by the increased rate of patent expirations for many first generation biotherapeutics, leading to the development of biosimilars of the originals. Additionally, in countries with favorable regulatory processes for biosimilars like the U.S., companies hope to secure greater market shares and profit margins within the biosimilar marketplace.
LifeSensors’ protein expression systems based on SUMO fusions create new opportunities to improve yield and bioactivity of biosimilars while reducing costs inherent in other production schemes. Specifically, the SUMOpro-3 system improves yield, solubility and stability of heterologous proteins in E. coli as well as eukaryotic hosts. In particular, the production of recombinant proteins in Pichia pastoris is highly variable and is greatly influenced by the inherent properties of the protein of interest. Fusion of the heterologous protein to human SUMO-3 helps eliminate this variability. The fusion improves folding and protects from degradation by endogenous proteases; it thereby enhances protein production and generation of a native N-terminus on the protein of interest.
Background: Biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies as well as academic and research institutions worldwide are using LifeSensors’ SUMO technologies. Over 200 peptides and proteins have been successfully expressed, and published, using SUMO fusion systems. These systems include E. coli, yeast, (S. cerevisiae and P. pastoris), insect/BEVS and mammalian (intracellular and secretory) cell expression hosts. Compared with traditional fusion tag technology, the enzymatic activity of SUMO proteases is the most specific and efficient—leading to the key advantage—inexpensive costs for cleaving peptide- and protein-fusions. The company’s growing SUMO portfolio represents cost-efficient and scalable technologies for the development of new and existing products in industrial, research and therapeutic markets.
Contact:
LifeSensors, Inc.
Phone: (610) 644-8845
Email: info@lifesensors.com
www.lifesensors.com
Asim Malik
LifeSensors, Inc.
Business Development
Mobile: 267.738.6852
Tel: 610.644.8845 x341
Fax: 610.644.8616
malik@lifesensors.com
