The project has been successfully implemented and achieved the expected deliverables and milestones. In more detail, the team focused on the bioproduction of reactive amino acids and on the design and production of affinity ligands. The ligands were immobilized on purification matrices and tested for binding and recovering pure and crude samples with target biotherapeutics. In these supports the ligands achieved 64-89% recovery of IgG from pure samples and 59-83% of IgG from crude samples. These results were benchmarked with commercially available chromatographic resins, showing that the in-house resins have comparable selectivity. Also, the first steps towards the production and characterization of novel adsorbents were made. The immobilization of affinity ligands in the new adsorbents was optimized. The functionalized adsorbents were tested both in gravitational and in automated systems (AKTA systems). In both systems, after optimization of binding and elution conditions, the novel adsorbents can capture and elute antibodies. As next steps include improvement of the binding capacity of the novel adsorbents.
The project has been presented through diverse platforms, e.g. radio, websites and youtube, and beneficiaries participated in conferences and scientific events to disseminate the project (
https://pure-fetopen.eu/communication/(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)).
PURE has 22 scientific outputs (7 published articles published and 4 to be published soon and 6 thesis/dissertations published, 5 to be published soon) and 2 provisional patent applications. The PURE team has participated in 54 international scientific conferences (1 best communication award), 3 industry-oriented conferences, 4 workshops and 7 events other than conferences or workshops. PURE members also participated in many outreach activities, namely in public schools, Pint of Science, EXPO FCT and European Researchers’ Night (2020, 2022, 2023 & 2024).
The main communication channel of the PURE project is the webpage (
https://pure-fetopen.eu/(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)) where all the information related with the project can be found as well as the PURE leaflet, the PURE newsletters, the 1st episode of #PURE_project In A Nutshell series and a sneak peek of our project.
