SBIR Phase II: Improving food safety using hyper-stable enzyme cleaning products

这个小企业创新研究第二阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是通过将超稳定的酶集成到清洁产品中来改善食品加工行业的清洁。工业酶是一个不断增长的、价值数十亿美元的绿色产业，它减少了能源、水和苛刻的化学品使用，同时在许多部门提高了工艺效率。尽管工业酶得到了广泛的应用和成功，但它们的应用和经济影响一直受到现有热和化学操作范围狭窄的严重限制。该公司已经开发出耐热和耐酸的酶，大大扩大了酶的应用范围。目标是为乳制品清洁市场开发一种初始产品，由于清洁速度更快，有可能增加产量，实现更好地去除蛋白质污染物和生物膜，减少用水量，并减少食品对化学品和化学废物的暴露。用酶进行更好的清洁有可能预防食源性疾病，减少用水量，同时增加食品加工利润，并提供一种可生物降解的替代化学清洁剂的方法。这个SBIR第二阶段项目旨在展示使用第一个实用的蛋白质表达平台生产用于商业用途的超稳定酶的可行性。虽然极端生物的基因已经被研究了40多年，但由于它们与传统的蛋白质表达系统不兼容，它们的商业潜力还没有实现。使用该公司技术生产的酶的独特超稳定性表明，酶的稳定性并不完全由基因序列编码。在第二阶段，目标是开发更全面的清洁配方，并用第一阶段确定的实验室和现场试验方法进行测试。该项目包括一系列综合实验，涵盖分子生物学、微生物学、生物化学、乳制品加工者现场试验和实用的工业生物过程优化。其目的是将世界上最极端的酶转化为世界上最有效的产品，用于乳制品行业和其他行业的膜去污和卫生。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project will be to improve cleaning in the food processing industry by integrating hyper-stable enzymes into cleaning products. Industrial enzymes are a growing, multi-billion dollar green industry that reduces energy, water, and harsh chemical use while improving process efficiency in many sectors. Despite the broad use and success of industrial enzymes, their application and economic impact has been severely limited by narrow thermal and chemical operational ranges available. The company has developed heat and acid stable enzymes that significantly expand the reach of enzyme applications. The goal is to develop an initial product for the dairy cleaning market that will have the potential to increase production due to faster cleaning, achieve better removal of protein contaminants and biofilms, reduce water usage, and reduce food product exposure to chemicals and chemical waste. Better cleaning with enzymes has the potential to prevent food-borne illness, and decrease water use, while increasing food-processing profits and providing a biodegradable alternative to chemical cleaners.This SBIR Phase II project proposes to demonstrate the feasibility of using the first practical protein expression platform to produce hyperstable enzymes for commercial use. Although the genes from extreme organisms have been studied for over forty years, their commercial potential has not been realized due to their incompatibility with traditional protein expression systems. The unique hyperstability of enzymes produced using the company's technologies indicate that enzyme stability is not encoded entirely by gene sequence. In Phase II, the goal is to develop more comprehensive cleaning formulations and test these with laboratory and field trial methods established in Phase I. The project encompasses a set of integrated experiments spanning molecular biology, microbiology, biochemistry, dairy processor field trials, and practical industrial bioprocess optimization. The aim is to transform the world's most extreme enzymes into the world's most effective products for membrane defouling and sanitation in the dairy industry and beyond.