Whole genome shuffling open new product areas in fermentation and vaccines.(Brief Article)

2002 APR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Maxygen Inc. (MAXY) reported dramatic advances in its ability to adapt entire microbial genomes for commercial uses.

In a report published in the journal Nature, Maxygen scientists describe the use of its proprietary whole genome shuffling (WGS) technologies to develop new bacterial strains with increased capacity to produce a commercial polyketide antibiotic. This study was facilitated by a grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology Advanced Technology Program (NIST-ATP).

Maxygen's WGS technologies allow the improvement of microbial strains for use in fermentation and bioprocessing, and extend methods previously applied by Maxygen to develop products for its existing commercial partners in pharmaceutical manufacturing and scale-up. The new technologies should allow more rapid development of bacterial strains having increased yield, and more efficient synthesis of high value molecules, such as antibiotics, anticancer compounds and nutritional supplements. They may also be useful for the development of clinical products, including new vaccines against bacterial diseases.

"The development of these novel whole genome recombination technologies will allow us to address substantial new product opportunities," said Alan Shaw, PhD, president of Maxygen's Chemicals division. "Many products are created using ...