PsyXpress 1.0 - a novel system for the expression of challenging enzymes

Cold-adapted enzymes are very challenging to produce in standard bacterial production hosts because they typically form inactive aggregates. This challenge represents perhaps the biggest bottleneck for further developments of new enzyme products from marine bioprospecting. Development of improved expression systems for enzymes with extreme properties could potentially have large impact on national and international biotech industry because such enzymes are highly desirable due to their intrinsic high efficiency at low temperatures. Cold-active enzymes can therefore contribute to e.g., more environmentally friendly industrial processes, and thus more environment-friendly consumer products. The main objective of PsyXpress is to develop a commercial system for efficient production of cold-active enzymes. The system is based on a sub-Arctic bacterium that grows surprisingly fast to very high densities at low temperatures, it is sensitive to commonly used antibiotics, expression of enzymes can be induced, its genome is known, and its genes can be manipulated in a site-specific fashion by use of genetic tools. So far, we have developed a prototype expression system and tested more than twenty commercially relevant cold-adapted enzymes. Fourteen of the cases resulted in soluble enzymes, which is far better than what can be expected when using conventional systems, such as E. coli. Further developments of the system towards a commercially viable product, either in the form of commercial kits with live cells and reagents or as service where the service provider does cloning and expression, is on-going at UiT The arctic university of Norway.

The results from this milestone project exceeded our expectations, and has convinced us that the PsyXpress technology should be verified. Increased interest from stakeholders is seen, and a verification proposal with excellent partners has been developed. Other effects include that IPR of the technology is secured, with a filed patent entering national phase, starting with North America and Europe. The first article describing the expression system is published in Microbial Cell Factories, to reach a broader audience. Given that positive trend continues, then this effort can result in new innovation e.g., cold-active enzymes for academia, industry and health, to contribute to lower energy consumption, new methods in food processing, and new low-temperature enzymes for washing detergents. New enzymes can also replace chemical catalysis. We are preparing for a spin-out company with new employees and competence.