Process

StorPro® protein bodies are highly accumulated in the cytosol. After cell homogenization they can efficiently be isolated by centrifugation or any other method relying on the specific physicochemical characteristics of the Zera® peptide.

The surrounding membrane and some minor contaminants are quickly removed by a gentle washing procedure. The resulting aggregate can now directly be used for applications such as vaccines where it represents multivalent antigens or as readily immobilized enzyme particles.

For other purposes where a monomer of the fusion protein is required, the aggregate can be solubilised under mild conditions, thus maintaining structure and activity of the protein.

Cleavage by site specific proteases or Inteins then releases the protein of interest from the Zera® peptide.

Finally the Zera® peptide, the protease and the protein of interest are separated from each other in a chromatographic step, which in many cases is sufficient as polishing.