Processing of recombinant proteins in agroinfiltrated leaves of Nicotiana benthamiana

自古以来，植物就为人类提供了药用产品，但最近，植物基因工程的进步和全球生物经济的增长使得它们在重组蛋白生产中的应用产生了显著的效益。所有这些在过去30年里出现的改良工具都可以被描述为植物分子药剂学的一部分。植物系统可以为重组蛋白生产提供一个有前途的平台，提供廉价的种植和高可扩展性。然而，内源性蛋白酶可能会降解异源表达的蛋白质，从而影响总体产量和/或功能。本研究将重点鉴定参与免疫球蛋白G （IgG）降解的benthamiana蛋白酶。DPhil将探索几个目标，包括IgG裂解位点鉴定、降解定位和完整IgG的筛选。最后，我们可能会研究序列和结构变化在蛋白酶抗体加工中的作用。

Plants have offered humans medicinal products since antiquity, but recently, the advancements in plant genetic engineering and the growth of the global bioeconomy have led to significant benefits in their application on recombinant protein production. All these improvement tools that have emerged in the last 30 years can be described as part of Plant Molecular Pharming. Plant systems can offer a promising platform for recombinant protein production, providing both inexpensive cultivation and high scalability. Nevertheless, endogenous proteases may degrade heterologously expressed proteins, thus affecting the overall yield and/or functionality. This study will focus on the identification of N. benthamiana proteases involved in the degradation of immunoglobulin G (IgG). The DPhil will explore several objectives, including IgG cleavage sites identification, localisation of degradation, and screening for intact IgGs. Finally, we may investigate the role of sequence and structure variation in antibody processing from proteases.