The Biotechnology Unit is responsible for the production and purification of biological material. The Unit undertakes a wide array of biological production tasks including large-scale growth of prokaryotic cells and eucaryotic cells, production of various compounds from microorganisms and eucaryotic dells, and purification of biological compounds especially proteins. These products, not available from commercial sources, are needed for clinical and structural studies. The Biotechnology Unit handles various production problems associated with growth and expression of recombinant and native products using both physiological and technical approaches. Efficient process development and production is possible since the Unit possesses two integrated elements: a fully operational multi-purpose pilot production facility and the capability of conducting research and process development. During the last year the unit performed approximately 200 different, large scale preparations including: 1, growing various microorganisms such as recombinant Escherichia coli, recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae, recombinant Pichia pastoris, mutant strains of Bortedella . pertussis, mutant strains of Corynebacteria diphtheria and several types of Salmonella and Shigella. 2, propagating large volumes of various mammalian cells; and 3, purifying gram quantities of diphtheria toxin CRM (Cross Reacting Material) and recombinant Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin A. In the research and development arena the unit continues: 1, its effort on the development of more efficient methods for large scale protein recovery, performing experiments implementing expanded bed adsorption techniques for capturing proteins on an ion exchangers and chelating resins; 2, conducting research aimed at understanding the glucose metabolism of various recombinant E. coli strains in an effort to find out why certain strains are more suitable for foreign protein production; 3, exploring various method for propagation of anchorage dependent mammalian cells such as cellcubes , fluidized bed, and packed bed; and 4, understanding and improving of the process of recombinant protein expression from various yeast strains such as Pichia pastoris and Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
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