Ever since insulin was approved for use 40 years ago, protein-based drugs have revolutionized healthcare. Millions of people take protein-based drugs and conditions which were untreatable now have simple and effective treatment. The major problem with protein-based drugs is the cost, compared to conventional therapies they are extremely expensive. This is a major limitation in the expansion of their use. One reason for the cost is that most contain structure stabilizing features called disulfide bonds, which are difficult to make. This project is based on our identification of new ways to make disulfides in organisms which make a lot of disulfides, implying these pathways must be very efficient. We will characterize these pathways and introduce them into our protein cell factories to generate more efficient and cheaper systems for protein production with the aim of significantly reducing the costs of protein-based drugs and allowing new therapies for other diseases to be developed.

2023

2027