Bioengineering production

In the area of bioengineered products, many of which are complex proteins of potent but sparsely studied activities in living systems, the investigative responsibilities of the toxicologist are likely to be very important, because he/she may be the first observer able to study the effects of repeated administration of a range of doses on a living system. It is now possible to frame a classification of the types of biologically derived therapeutic products (Table 12.3). 

TABLE 12.3. Classification of Bioengineered Products on Practical Grounds... 

When combining the membrane and the reactor into an integrated system, cost savings may be significant. This difference can be attributed to the convection and other transport modes in the separation steps by membranes in contrast to the traditional diffusion mode by other separation techniques. For example, the use of membrane reactors instead of the traditional reactors for bioengineered products can reduce the operating costs by as much as 25% [Chan and Brownstein, 1991]. 

Another big concern is that bioengineered crops will adversely affect the environment. Some reports have suggested that BT-com will adversely affect other species or that some bioengineered products will become dominant strains. 

Detection limits vary depending on the application. Assays for the detection of mycotoxins are designed to detect low parts per billion (ppb). The analysis of food allergens takes place in the lower parts per million (ppm). However, such low levels of sensitivity are not required for the analysis of other targets, such as those used in the analysis of bioengineered products and speciation. 

Because of their highly polar and reactive macromolecular structure, proteins have attracted much attention in the last few decades, as possible sources of novel polymeric materials. The details of this activity are discussed in Chapter 23. A particularly interesting natural proteinic material is undoubtedly the spider dragline sOk, because of its extraordinary mechanical properties. Given the obvious difficulties related to gathering viable amounts of this biopolymer, much research is being devoted to its bioengineering production [30]. 

In 2008, the United States controlled more than 90 percent of the bioengineered products market. Europe and Japan were the next leading providers, and both the European and the Japanese markets were expected to continue to grow. There are more than two hundred companies in the United States working to provide research, equipment, and products in the industry. 

An interesting biochemical method of manufacture is the utili2ation of bioengineered Fseudomonad 2isrmA (16) or Pseudomonas stut ri (17) in a culture medium to oxidi2e naphthalene or alkyl-substituted naphthalene. The metabohc oxidation products, unsubstituted or substituted sahcyhc acid. 

Parrke, S., Held, M., Wubbolts, M.G., Witholt, B., Schmid, A. (2002) Pilot-Scale Production of (S)-Styrene Oxide from Styrene by Recombinant Escherichia coli Synthesizing Styrene Monooxygenase. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 80, 33M1. 

Mayer, A.F., Hellmuth, K., Schlieker, H. et al. (1999) An expression system matures a highly efficient and cost-effective process for phytase production by recombinant strains of Hansenulapolymorpha. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 63 (3), 373-381. 

Held, M., Schmid, A., Kohler, H.-P. et al. (1999) An integrated process for the production of toxic catechols from toxic phenols based on a designer biocatalyst. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 62 (6), 641-648. 

Kim, S.-W. and Keasling, J.D. (2001) Metabolic engineering of the nonmevalonate isopentenyl diphosphate synthesis pathway in Escherichia coli enhances lycopene production. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 12, 408-415. 

Besumbes, O., Sauret-Giieto, S., Phillips, M.A. et al. (2004) Metabolic engineering of isoprenoidbiosynthesisin Arabidopsis for the production of taxadiene, the first committed precursor of Taxol. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 88, 168-175. 

Dinnis, D. and James, D. 2005. Engineering mammalian cell factories for improved recombinant monoclonal antibody production lessons from nature Biotechnology and Bioengineering 91(2), 180-189. 

Once isolated, the natural H2 producers can be optimized by conventional mutagenesis, and they should be studied so that we can understand those features that make them the best H2 producers. This characterization would involve the analysis of metabolic fluxes (Stephanopoulos and Sinskey 1993 Schuster et al. 1999) and molecular genetics. It would result in new, previously unknown adaptations necessary for improved H2 production, and could provide information on the most important mutations that are required to obtain excellent H2 producers. Information obtained from these experiments should be used in genetic engineering approaches for optimizing H2 producers. Moreover, excellent H2 producers should be used in bioengineering approaches. 

---