MONTAGUE, PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND--(Marketwired - Mar 16, 2015) - SOLARVEST BIOENERGY INC. (TSX VENTURE:SVS) ("Solarvest") announces that it has used its Algal based production Platform to express bioActive therapeutic proteins.
Mr. Gerri Greenham, CEO stated that, "This proof of concept confirms the ability of Solarvest's patented Algal Platform to efficiently produce complex bioactive therapeutic compounds."
Solarvest's Algal Platform has many advantages as compared to current industry processes, which utilize E.coli or yeast in the production and can cost millions of dollars per gram of bioactive compound:
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Micro-algae harbour no known human pathogens, unlike the currently utilized human, bacterial and animal cells lines
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Algae are capable of high quality, volume production of active proteins
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Algae can be grown in sterile bioreactors under controlled conditions
This breakthrough could substantially reduce the cost of production, with the potential to increase the economical access to hundreds of products for human and animal health.
The proof of concept study required Solarvest's Algal Platform to produce Bone Morphogenetic Protein(s) (BMP) and was completed using experts at the University of Prince Edward Island. The goal of the study was to determine if the algae-produced protein would be active and induce osteogenesis in undifferentiated stem cells. The successful result, in conjunction with previous positive results with other complex proteins, confirms that Solarvest's Algal Platform is capable of producing active recombinant proteins. In the case of human recombinant BMP proteins, Solarvest successfully produced a complex, soluble, properly folded and dimerized protein(s). A dimer is two individual proteins units joined together and BMP is only active when presented as a dimer with the proper three dimensional configuration. The National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP) provided technical and business advisory services, as well as funding assistance to support the trial.
Future plans call for the Company to produce a range of bioactive therapeutic proteins to confirm the scope and versatility of the Solarvest Algal Platform. Solarvest will explore avenues to commercialize BMP for veterinary and human applications and will seek supportive partnerships with companies that are active in this and other bioactive protein markets.
BMP Background
One current supplier of BMP sheds some light on the complexity and cost of the process:
In order to just get a bioreactor up, qualified and validated, it can cost anywhere from $400 million to $2 billion. And that reactor can only make that one protein. One batch of BMP requires a staff of more than 100 people to produce and monitor the material, which undergoes approximately 200 quality control tests.