Importance for society:
Protein secretion systems are of great importance for society:
• Therapeutic proteins (biopharmaceuticals): Escherichia coli is used to produce over 30% of the therapeutic proteins approved to date. Many of these proteins are difficult to produce.
• Industrial enzymes, such as amylases, lipases and proteases, are usually produced in bacilli. These enzymes are used in detergent and food industries and play important roles in the daily life of many people
• Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell lines are an increasingly important platform for production of recombinant proteins.
Socio-economic impact:
GreenerRPP was designed to have maximum impact in terms of enhancing DC’s career prospects, provision of innovative and more sustainable protein production platforms, and stimulation of the European recombinant protein production sector.
The results from GreenerRPP have delivered several scientifically and commercially relevant findings with respect to protein production and the delivery of new sustainable production platforms. The industrial partners in GreenerRPP benefit greatly from the interactions between them and the academic partners.
Wider societal implications:
A primary aim of GreenerRPP is to train a next generation of scientists and leaders with an innovative entrepreneurial mindset, and with awareness of sustainability.
This project incorporates a series of South-East Asian Institutions as Associated Partners, and the project develops a global network with an extensive knowledge exchange.
Altogether, GreenerRPP is progressing well with respect to new concepts, technologies and novel sustainable production strategies that are of direct relevance to participant companies (DSM Food Specialties BV, Boehringer-Ingelheim, AB Enzymes).