Recent advances in biomolecular process intensification

Escherichia coli has been the most popular cellular biofactory for the production of many biomolecules including recombinant proteins whose bioactivities are not dependent on complicated post-translational modifications such as glycosylation. Despite many advantages of protein production using E. coli, the formation of insoluble inclusion bodies (IBs) poses a major challenge to harnessing E. coli as a host of choice. Furthermore, the complicated processing steps associated with 113 extraction, solubilisation of IBs and refolding of the solubilised-denatured 113 proteins, which are typically encountered in the traditional 113 processing flowsheet, significantly compromise process economics of IB-route protein production using E. coli. In this paper, many recent advances in innovative IB processing technologies are reviewed with a special emphasis on their potential to contribute to process intensification, which is critical to achieve better process economics in the IB-route recombinant protein production using E. coli. (c) 2005 Published by Elsevier Ltd.