German protein expression platform company LenioBio GmbH was awarded a 2.75M Euro Eurostars grant in May to lead a consortium comprising one academic and two industrial partners across three European countries.
LenioBio from Germany, cell-free biomanufacturing processes developer EnginZyme AB from Sweden, and Wageningen University from the Netherlands complete the consortium under the project name HiT-GlyP. With funding for three years, the project will research and develop the first high-throughput glycoprotein production and manufacturing system.
The HiT-GlyP project is expected to provide the world’s first platform for targeted and reliable glycoengineering of proteins for drug discovery and manufacturing, contributing to closing the gap between glycobiology observation and human benefit. This is a technology of increasing need, recently evidenced by the global pandemic. Complex glycosylation of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is a crucial component of virus infection but the development of strategies exploiting this feature for prophylactic or therapeutic purposes are still restrained by a lack of research tools.
The goal of the HiT-GlyP project is “to democratize the glycoengineering landscape by facilitating the creation and evaluation of single glycoform proteins. An end-to-end solution is planned by first enabling advanced screening methodologies and subsequently developing novel biomanufacturing workflows, accelerating the time to market for glycoengineered biologics” according to LenioBio GmbH.
“This is a great opportunity to collaborate with our distinguished consortium partners and advance the knowledge of protein glycosylation to create an impact to society” said Ricarda Finnern, Ph.D., CSO at LenioBio. “As the first reliable method for precision engineering of glycoproteins, novel, exciting technology will open up a completely new market segments, with extensive benefits across basic research, applied screening and glycoprotein biologics manufacturing.