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酶整合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、水和苛刻的化学品的使用，同时提高了许多部门的工艺效率。尽管工业酶的广泛应用和成功，但其应用和经济影响受到可用的狭窄热和化学操作范围的严重限制。该公司已开发出热和酸稳定的酶，显着扩大酶的应用范围。我们的目标是为乳制品清洁市场开发一种初始产品，该产品将有可能因更快的清洁而提高产量，更好地去除蛋白质污染物和生物膜，减少用水量，并减少食品暴露于化学品和化学废物。利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，并为化学清洁剂提供可生物降解的替代品。SBIR第二阶段项目旨在证明使用第一个实用的蛋白质表达平台生产商业用途的超稳定酶的可行性。尽管对极端生物基因的研究已经有四十多年的历史，但由于它们与传统蛋白表达系统的不相容性，它们的商业潜力尚未实现。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，并使用第一阶段建立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，乳制品加工现场试验和实际工业生物过程优化。我们的目标是将世界上最极端的酶转化为世界上最有效的产品，用于乳制品行业及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.