Researchers’ Spinout Focuses on Simplifying Viral Vector Purification

U.S.-based researchers have developed a portfolio of peptide ligands for purifying viral vectors for gene therapies and have launched a company that develops affinity technologies for biopharmaceutical manufacturers.

ChromaGenix, a spinout from North Carolina State University (NC State), commercializes peptide ligands as an alternative to the traditional protein ligands used in affinity chromatography.

According to Stefano Menegatti, PhD, CSO at ChromaGenix and a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NC State, the ligands are cheaper and less likely to trigger an immune response in patients than the protein ligands traditionally used.

“Protein ligands have been a fantastic enabler of advanced biological therapies over the past two decades, but they do have shortcomings,” he explains. “Proteins can denature or degrade, potentially releasing immunogenic fragments, which poses a certain level of risk.” As such, Menegatti says, protein ligands have a short lifetime and must be replaced frequently, adding further to production costs. They can also bind too strongly to the product, making it harder to recover it from the chromatographic step.

By contrast, peptide ligands, which are very small proteins, overcome these issues, he says. They can be produced synthetically, making them cheaper than proteins. As they don’t have a complex structure, they can be cleaned under harsh conditions without becoming inactive. They have a longer lifespan and a much lower immunogenicity risk, Menegatti says. Also, as they’re small, he explains,they can be cleared during final product filtration.

This “represents a new frontier of gene therapy manufacturing, says Menegatti, “as it boosts the efficiency of the viral vector manufacturing pipeline.”

Having developed peptide ligands for a wide variety of viral vectors, ChromaGenix is already selling to many companies, Menegatti says. The researchers and the company are now hoping to move beyond gene therapies.

“Our next chapter is going to be developing ligands for the purification of therapeutic cells, starting with CAR [chimeric antigen receptor] T cells,” he says.

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