700471Proof of Market for Periplasmic Affinity Capture and Novel AptamerClosedGRD Proof of MarketInnovate UKBioMimOx is developing a novel method of protein engineering that enables highly specific binding of proteins to targets of interest. The method of protein engineering is termed Periplasmic Affinity Capture and makes use of bacterial cell’s ability to produce proteins from laboratory engineered DNA. The resulting binding proteins are termed peptide aptamers and have a great number of uses within the fields of biotherapeutics (protein therapeutics), diagnostics and research reagents. We intend to use these platform technologies to enter the protein purification segment of the biotherapeutics market in order to improve existing technologies. The biotherapeutics market is forecast to be worth $168 billion by 2017 and downstream processing such as protein purification is estimated to make up 80% of production costs. There are two classes of protein therapeutics; monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) which are the fastest growing class in the pharmaceutical industry and non-monoclonal antibody proteins (non-mAbs). Both these classes of protein therapeutics make use of different technologies in their purification. MAb purification uses a bacterially derived protein known as Protein A, which are toxic to humans but have a very high affinity to mAbs. This unique coupling can be used to separate out mAbs from impurities in downstream processing. Currently, Protein A is allowed for this purpose by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) in the approval process but alternatives are being sought. Non-mAbs are purified using technology that has not changed a great deal over for 30 years. As this is a multistep procedure it suffers from low yields and is costly. By producing proteins with a high affinity for the therapeutic protein, we can provide an alternative to Protein A in mAb purification and to introduce a much needed platform technology to the purification of non-mAbs therefore streamlining the process, increasing total yields and reducing costs.