Interferon beta production in recombinant microalgae

• Grant number: 16/06171-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2016
• End date: May 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Microbiology - Applied Microbiology
• Principal Investigator: João Carlos Monteiro de Carvalho
• Grantee: Viviane Mayumi Siratuti
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas (FCF). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Biopharmaceuticals represent the sector with the highest growth rate in global sales in the billion dollar pharmaceutical industry. Interferon beta (IFN-beta) is a polypeptide used as a biopharmaceutical in the treatment of multiple sclerosis, condyloma acuminata and rheumatoid arthritis. It is currently produced in Escherichia coli or CHO (Chinese Hamster Ovary cells), but other expression systems are being developed in order to obtain high quality biopharmaceuticals with lower production costs. Microalgae are expression systems that have many desirable characteristics for the production on a commercial-scale. Thus, this project aims to get interferon beta through the nuclear genome of microalgae Chlamydomonas reinhardti combining techniques to amplify the nuclear expression levels of recombinant proteins in order to achieve production on a commercial-scale.