Innovative growth factor functionalized products for the lifescience research market

Proteins control the development and maintenance of human tissues. Using bioengineering techniques, essentially any given protein can be copied and manufactured. These purified recombinant proteins are fundamental to modern biotechnology and have many diagnostic and therapeutic applications. For example, recombinant insulin is used to treat diabetes. Recombinant proteins, especially growth factors, are also widely used in regenerative medicine research. Despite their importance, the potential utility of growth factors is critically impaired by their fragility - they break down quickly before they have achieved a useful effect. By improving stability, their medical and commercial value of can be transformed. For example, multiple injections of ordinary insulin can now be replaced by a single daily injection of stabilized insulin. Although some proteins have been stabilized, effective stabilization for most proteins remains problematic. Cell Guidance Systems has developed PODS, a “plug-and-play” platform technology which can stabilize essentially any given protein. The technology employs the unique properties of a polyhedrin protein which self-assembles into robust crystals to encase and armour the target protein. To date, we have made >95 such stabilized proteins. Here, we plan to incorporate PODS proteins into support materials to create functionalized biomaterials (bioinks, microcarriers and microspheres, and electrospun materials). These will initially be sold to the regenerative medicine research market and may ultimately be developed for therapeutic use.