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Team:Imperial College London/Manufacturing Considerations
From 2009.igem.org
Manufacturing Considerations
Pill manufacture is not only concerned with drug release but also by synthesis, purification, packaging, storage, administration and quality control. The E.ncapsulator has been designed to address each of these important manufacturing considerations.
If The E.ncapsulator is to be adopted as a drug delivery platform, it must be able to synthesise any polypeptide. To this end, we have designed a 'universal adaptor' such that peptides which do not begin with the amino acid methionine can be synthesised.
In addition, all genes not derived from E.coli have been 'codon optimised' for expression in our chassis. The process of codon optimisation maximises the efficiency of gene expression.
In The E.ncapsulator, polypeptide synthesis (Module 1) and packaging (Module 2) occurs in the same place. This means that we do not need to require expensive downstream purification protocols. Since this obviously means that the cell must be ingested, we have chosen a GRAS strain of E.coli as our chassis.
Storage has been considered in two ways. Firstly trehalose facilitates freeze drying and secondly we have been experimenting with a number if secondary encapsulation technologies including: xantham gum, milk protein and gelatin.
Edible and cheap secondary capsule. Primary capsule facilitates delivery past stomach.
Since we are depending on a population of cells to produce a biologically active polypeptide our bets are hedged. In that if one cell fails to produce any protein it will have a minimal impact on the whole system.
