Multi-enzyme cascade for continuous synthesis of sialyllactose
GALAB Biotechnology as manufacturer of biocatalysis-based products for the biopharmaceutical and food industries is developing processes for the production of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs). Sialyllactose is one of the most abundant sialylated HMOs and plays an important role in the growth and development of infants, especially in the first months of life1. Unfortunately, only a few infant formulas contain this valuable substance2. GALAB Biotechnology’s mission is to contribute to the optimisation of infant formula and to give infants who cannot be breastfed a good start in life. Our goal is to develop an efficient production process for sialyllactose.
Our complex biocatalytic multi-enzyme cascade overcomes challenges and makes the cascade easy to handle and suitable for industrial use:
- Using a special immobilisation process for our proprietary enzymes, we achieve high stabilities that can withstand the demands of continuous processes.
- The use of our immobilised enzymes in modular packed bed reactors provides high space-time yields and enables flexible process scaling.
- The modular process design enables optimal process parameters for highest activities of each enzyme of the cascade.
- By integrating an additional module, costly cofactors can be regenerated and reused in the process.
- Process parameters can be optimised using a kinetic process model of the enzyme cascade.
Our interdisciplinary GALAB Biotechnology team with expertise in recombinant enzyme production, enzyme immobilisation, process development and modelling of complex enzyme cascades is the basis of our success. The development of the production process is carried out in collaboration with the Institute for Technical Biocatalysis (Hamburg University of Technologies) and is part of the BMBF-funded projects prot P.S.I. (031B1080C) and NukleoCycling (031B1370).
1 Bruggencate, S.J. Ten et al., Functional Role and Mechanisms of Sialyllactose and Other Sialylated Milk Oligosaccharides. Nutrition Reviews 2014, 72, 377–389, doi:10.1111/nure.12106.
2 Walsh, C. et al., From Lab Bench to Formulated Ingredient: Characterization, Production, and Commercialization of Human Milk Oligosaccharides. Journal of Functional Foods 2020, 72, 104052, doi:10.1016/j.jff.2020.104052.
