SemBioSys launches molecular farming project

SemBioSys Genetics Inc (SGI) will undertake the development of low-cost proteins from plants for use in the pharmaceutical and personal care markets. The $18.6-million R&D project is supported by a $5.5-million repayable loan from Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC.). The project will see SGI move its proprietary process for producing recombinant proteins (molecular farming) closer to commercial production. Molecular farming is seen as a significant improvement over current protein production techniques, which involve expensive microbial fermentation and often encounter problems when scaling up from bench to production volumes. SGI’s technology uses safflower, which can produce high volumes of protein at a low cost....