PAT Friday® : A new recombinant protein expression system (patent publication# WO/2008/040599) using natural protein excretion system of genetically modified carnivorous plants (Drosera, Nepenthes) to produce outside their leaf, in a sterile closed pitcher (Nepenthes), the protein of interest in a liquid. Collect of the protein is easy as emptying the pitchers on the plants.
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=> Présentation en images (français)

Nepenthes young pitcher: A natural sterile bio-reactor

Specific advantages of PAT Friday® over other plant based systems:

• Easy liquid collect : just pouring the pitcher.
• Extraction and purification process : The protein of interest is produced in a liquid containing only a dozen of other proteins vs hundreds in other plant systems (corn, tabaco, alfafa,...). Cost of purification is greatly cut down.
• Sterile : When the pitcher is young, it is sealed and sterile (like no other plant crops !).
• Only 2 proteases repported in the liquid with an easy control of their activity by a simple PH control.
• Excretion and production of the liquid are inductible by chemicals applied on the plant leaves.
• Confined production: The production are in S2 confined greenhouses, so there is no risk of pollen or pesticide contamination like other plant-made pharmaceuticals (PMP) in open fields. Public acceptance of confined GM production in Europe is OK.
• Easy scale-up : Nepenthes plants are easy to multiply and they grow fast. Greenhouses are easy to install and to scale-up.
• Traceability : These plants are perennials and live long years. Each one will be identified as part of a production lot (not possible on annual field crops).

  

And general advantages of plants systems production:

• Safety regarding virus and prions ( plants are safe vs mammalian cells production like CHO)
• Cost: Transgenic plants are potentially one of the most economical systems for large-scale production of recombinant proteins.
• Glygosylation: "...Recent progress has been made towards humanization of N-glycosylation in plants and plant-typical N and O-glycosylation progressively emerge as additional advantages. .../... When a handicap turns into an advantage:
  Tools that are now available for a targeted expression of glycosyltransferases in the plant secretory pathway to further increase the diversity of PMP glycoforms.
  Today plants are emerging as an expression system for the synthesis of glycovariants of therapeutic proteins that cannot be produced for low cost using cultured mammalian cells . " (Claude Saint-Jore-Dupas & Al, 2006) *

PAT Friday® technology is now available for licensing or collaborative specific protein production project.

PAT Friday® poster