Fungal C1 Fermentation and Novel Peptide-Nanofiber Capture Technology for Low-Cost MAM01 Antibodies

Michael Betenbaugh with Honggang Cui of Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. will develop a biomanufacturing platform for low-cost production of the antimalarial monoclonal antibody MAM01, combining a fungal expression system with a nanofiber-bound peptide technology for antibody capture and purification. Collaborating with Dyadic International and with Thermo Fisher Scientific, they will optimize the fermentation media and bioprocess conditions in the expression system, which uses the thermophilic filamentous fungus Thermothelomyces heterothallica C1. They will also optimize conditions for the selective capture, separation, and recovery of the antibody along with recycling of the antibody-binding peptide. They will integrate these conditions, assess and further optimize them to reduce production costs, and demonstrate the scalability of the platform.