Objective Objectives and content Supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) has many advantages over conventional liquid solvents, being non-toxic, cheap, and versatile. Its solvation power can be finely adjusted with changes in temperature and pressure around its critical point, at 31.06 . The properties of scCO2 are currently being explored for an array of industrial processes, including extraction, microparticle formation and chemical reactions. The low temperature environment is theoretically ideal for proteins which denature at high temperatures, but scCO2 is poor at dissolving both polar and very large molecules. In addition, scCO2 has been known to cause denaturing of proteins by virtue of its high acidity when dissolved in water. Recent work has demonstrated the use of non-toxic polyfluoropolyether (PFPE) surfactants to stabilise a microemulsion of an aqueous discrete phase dispersed within a continuous phase of supercritical carbon dioxide. The micelles of PFPE have been shown to effectively solvate the test protein BSA within the micelles of PFPE. This development is important, as work on conventional reverse micellar solutions and water-inoil microemulsions for biotechnology has used toxic surfactants and continuous phase organic solvents which are unacceptable to the food and pharmaceutical industries. This project will develop supercritical fluid technologies for the processing of proteins and peptides, using CO2-philic surfactants including PFPE. The following techniques will be explored; Cell breaking using rapid pressurisationdepressurisation cycles of scCO2 Protein purification through fine tuning of the solvent properties of scCO2-water microemulsions Protein particle formation and encapsulation using various supercritical fluid techniques The CO2-philic surfactants will also be evaluated for speeding the cell breaking process. Work on the microemulsions is a high-risk area which is balanced by the more medium technical risk areas of the project. A particular challenge will be overcoming the high acidity of the water domains within the micelles. This project will combine the efforts of academic institutions, encapsulation and supercritical fluid extraction specialists, and end users within the enzyme and pharmaceutical industries. The work will be supported by state-of-the-art spectroscopic analytical techniques and protein analysis, and will involve requirements specification, evaluation of various surfactants and protein solubilisation experiments, development of each of the elements described above, and a final testing programme. The supercritical fluid technology will be developed with wide industrial applications in mind, and the end user partners will be able to use the developed technology soon after project end to reduce the costs involved in protein processing, and in the development of new, encapsulated protein and peptide products. Fields of science medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugsnatural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsenzymesnatural scienceschemical sciences Programme(s) FP4-BRITE/EURAM 3 - Specific research and technological development programme in the field of industrial and materials technologies, 1994-1998 Topic(s) 0102 - Development of clean production technologies Call for proposal Data not available Funding Scheme CSC - Cost-sharing contracts Coordinator SMITHKLINE BEECHAM PLC EU contribution No data Address New Horizons Court TW8 9EP BRENTFORD United Kingdom See on map Total cost No data Participants (5) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all Biocatalysts Ltd. United Kingdom EU contribution No data Address Main Avenue CF37 5UT Pontypridd See on map Total cost No data INSTITUTO DE BIOLOGIA EXPERIMENTAL E TECNOLOGICA Portugal EU contribution No data Address Quinta do Marques 2780-901 OEIRAS See on map Total cost No data MICROLITHE SA France EU contribution No data Address 111,Zone Industrielle Athélia III, Voie Atlas 13705 MARIGNANE See on map Total cost No data Separex Chimie Fine SA France EU contribution No data Address Rue Jacques Monod 54250 Champigneulles See on map Total cost No data UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM United Kingdom EU contribution No data Address University Park NOTTINGHAM See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data
