Recovery Bio- Processing

Astaxanthin is a high-value carotenoid produced from microalgae that is produced commercially. Astaxanthin is ubiquitous in nature, especially in the marine environment, and is responsible for eliciting the pinkish-red hue to the flesh of salmonids, shrimp, lobster and crayfish. Cultivation methods have been developed to produce Haematococcus containing 1.5-3.0% astaxanthin by dry weight, with potential applications as a pigment source in aquaculture, poultry feeds and in the nutraceutical area.  

The delicate nature of biomolecules such as (glycosylated) proteins, polysaccharides and metabolites necessitates appropriate methods for purification and separation, such as chromatography, lyophilization and crystallization. 

Tlie chhal nature of biomolecules and, increasingly, of APIs requires the production of enantiomerically pure compounds. Tlie difference in biological activity of the two enantiomers of a chiral drag has raised the demand for enantiomerically pure products, especially in the phaimaceutical and veteiinaiy industry. Simulated moving-bed chromatography is developing into an efficient tool for the separation of the two isomers of a chiral molecule, at all production scales, from laboratory to pilot plant to production plant. 

Ifie cell possesses a complex protein machinery to help some proteins to fold after biosynthesis or heat shock. It consists of moleculai chaperones, thought to prevent misfolding and aggregation by binding to polypeptide chains that are not fully folded, and some enzymes able to catalyze specific interactions in polypeptide chains. 

Proteins that contain disulfide bonds often fold slowly in vitro because the oxidation and coixect pairing of the cysteine residues becomes the rate-limiting step and the bonds formed ai e not always the coiiect ones. Many proteins, especially those that are secreted by eu-kaiyotes, aie stabilized by disulfide bonds. Examples of such proteins include those used for medical or biotechnological puiposes, such as interleukins, IFNs, antibodies and then fragments, insulin, TGF, and many toxins and proteases. Expression of recombinant proteins as inclusion bodies in bacteria can be a very efficient way to produce cloned proteins, as long as the inclusion body protein can be successfully refolded. 

0% astaxanthin by dry weight, with potential applications as a pigment source in aqnacnltnre, ponltry feeds and in the nutraceutical area.  

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