HoLoPep

Various peptides with specific adhesive properties on different surfaces such as stainless steel, natural or synthetic polymers have already been identified with molecular screening methods in Henkel AG. In order to be able to fully test the potential of the identified peptides for various applications in products such as detergents and cleaning agents as well as cosmetics and personal care and/or adhesives and in the application-oriented, standardised test protocols of Henkel AG, larger quantities , estimated at more than 100 grams, are required.

The production of peptides on a three-digit gram scale and the evaluation of competitive production systems will be the subject of the project. This will involve scaling up the existing E. coli production system to a 100 litre scale and investigating alternative extracellular production platforms.

Production organisms such as the filamentous fungi A. oryzae and/or T. reesei will be tested and evaluated. Furthermore, a suitable process will be developed that allows the provision of the peptides or further formulation work within a cost framework suitable for technical applications. Different basic operations like filtration, precipitation, chromatography are suitable and have to be compared. In addition, the use of anchor peptide technology as a cost-effective option for the purification of peptides will be investigated. Aspects of the required purity, the chemical or enzymatic separation of additional sequences, for example inclusion body, purification tags, anchor peptides, are addressed from the beginning in the process development.

After successful completion of the HoLoPep project on a laboratory scale, up to 100 litre fermenters in phase 1 of Bio4MatPro, the transfer to the demonstrator or pilot scale is planned in phase 2. Finally, in the event of positive progress, the testing of the developed process on a pilot scale is the subject of the further project phases.