High-titre brazzein production via pichia fermentation
Isomerase has developed a high-titre Pichia fermentation process to produce brazzein, a sweet protein 4,000x sweeter than sucrose with a clean taste profile. This process is cost-effective and suitable for commercial food applications, offering a breakthrough in sweetener production.
Overview
Isomerase presents a groundbreaking solution for producing brazzein, a natural sweet protein that is 4,000 times sweeter than sucrose. Using a proprietary Pichia fermentation system, this process achieves high titres, significantly reducing production costs and improving purity. Brazzein and its variants offer a clean sugar-like taste without the bitter aftertaste common in other sweeteners, making them ideal for the food industry.
Technical specifications
Key features:
- High titre production of brazzein up to 6 g/L, with ongoing improvements targeting >10 g/L.
- Proprietary yeast and bacillus expression systems for efficient fermentation.
- Produces brazzein variants 15-20 times sweeter than brazzein itself.
- High thermal stability and good solubility enhance applicability in various food products.
- Development of a low-cost downstream processing (DSP) to achieve >95% purity.
Technology readiness level
This technology is currently at TRL 4, indicating a technology validated in a laboratory environment. Further validation at a 30L scale is planned to develop a robust tech transfer package and facilitate scaled manufacture. Isomerase seeks partners for co-development or licensing to bring this innovative sweetener solution to market.
About Isomerase
Isomerase is a biotechnology research company and service provider specializing in microbial bioengineering. They leverage a proprietary platform, including the IsoZym bioproduction system, to discover and engineer microbes—such as bacteria and fungi—to produce therapeutics, enzymes, and other biomolecules. The company integrates synthetic biology, bioinformatics, and microbial strain development with advanced analytical chemistry and bioprocessing capabilities to optimize production processes. Their technical expertise spans natural product discovery, metabolic engineering, and the development of recombinant peptides, allowing them to provide end-to-end support from early-stage concept and screening through to process scale-up and commercial readiness.
The company serves partners across the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and sustainability sectors by helping them access difficult chemical spaces and create more cost-effective, sustainable manufacturing routes. By functioning as an innovation partner, Isomerase addresses the challenges of discovering novel compounds or improving existing bioprocesses for complex products like biocatalytic enzymes and natural product analogues. Their work is supported by an extensive, proprietary collection of microbial strains and state-of-the-art laboratory facilities located in the Cambridge Biomedical Cluster. They provide a collaborative model where partners receive dedicated scientific and business points of contact to ensure accountability and project alignment, helping to bridge the gap between initial discovery and industrial-scale application.
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