Production of Biopharmaceuticals in Microalgae Chapter uri icon

abstract

  • Current production systems for recombinant proteins are composed of bacteria, yeasts, mammalian, or plant cells that have been genetically modified to produce several biopharmaceuticals (BFs) currently available in the market, such as hormones, monoclonal antibodies, vaccines, and others. Each system possesses its own features in terms of cost, safety, biosynthetic capacity, and downstream processing. Given the generalized high cost of BFs, emerging platforms are still desirable to address optimum features including low cost to increase product accessibility, especially in low-income countries. Besides serving as a valuable model in biological sciences, Chamydomonas reinhardtii is a microalga that has been successfully used during the last decade in the biotechnology area to establish alga-based platforms for BF production at low costs. This context augurs the exploitation of additional algae species, such as Phaeodactylum tricornutum, Dunaliella salina, and Nannochloropsis spp., for BFs production as a key trend in the field. In this chapter, the potential advantages of using marine microalgae species are analyzed. © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

publication date

  • 2015-01-01