Cocoon Bioscience, a Spain-based biotechnology company, has opened the world's first industrial plant that produces recombinant proteins using chrysalis-shaped insects as low-cost natural bioreactors.
The new facility is ISO 9001 certified and fadheres to the Good Manufacturing Practise (GMP) guidelines, according to Cocoon Bioscience.
Albian Group, a Spanish cleanroom build specialist, contributed to constructing new laboratories in the facility.
The new plant is for recombinant protein production specifically for mRNA therapies and vaccines, gene sequencing, and the cultured meat industries.
The new facility is ISO 9001 certified and adheres to the Good Manufacturing Practise (GMP) guidelines
Located in Bizkaia Science and Technology Park, in northern Spain, the plant has 4,000sqm dedicated to production out of the overall 2,300sqm of the facility.
Further, the new location has the capacity to generate an annual production of between two and three kilogrammes of recombinant protein and has the potential to increase this capacity even beyond 20kg in the future, according to Cocoon Bioscience.
Expanding production to an industrial scale will reduce the cost of these recombinant proteins, said Cocoon Bioscience, making advanced therapies and sustainable food accessible.
"It can meet the global demand for food," added Director of Cocoon Bioscience, Josh Robinson.
Crisbio technology
Cocoon Bioscience uses Crisbio technology that has a technique that is as "as secret as the Coca-Cola formula”, claimed Cocoon Bioscience's COO, Romy M. Dalton.
However, what Cocoon Bioscience has revealed about the Crisbio technology is that it is based on inoculating the chrysalises with baculovirus, which is a type of virus.
The baculovirus then acts like a Trojan horse, introducing the desired gene sequence into the insect cells.
To produce the recombinant proteins, Cocoon Bioscience uses chrysalises of Trichoplusia ni, from the moth family
"The baculovirus is harmless to mammals and allows the chrysalises to naturally produce the desired recombinant protein in just three to six days," Dalton explained.
To produce the recombinant proteins, Cocoon Bioscience uses chrysalises of Trichoplusia ni, from the moth family.
Cocoon Bioscience’s insect hatchery, managed by a team of expert entomologists, is designed to be an efficient and robust production platform.
The baculovirus is harmless to mammals and allows the chrysalises to naturally produce the desired recombinant protein in just three to six days
Overall, Crisbio technology enables Cocoon Bioscience to use insects in their chrysalis state on an automated platform that makes them highly efficient and low-cost natural bioreactors.
In this way, the method of production is “more natural, scalable and accessible” compared to the traditional method of fermentation with bacteria, where stainless steel bioreactors are used.
The goal of Cocoon Bioscience is to make mRNA vaccines and therapies, as well as cultured meat accessible to every country especially developing countries that face food shortages and infectious diseases that highly affect their populations.