ISPMF NEWSLETTER | Issue 17 1

Dear ISPMF Members

In this issue we reflect and celebrate some of our members recent achievements and highlights over the last few months. With updates on 2 recent molecular farming workshops, members publications and recent press releases from some of our corporate members.

We also welcome two new members to the ISPMF communications team for 2020, Dr Hadrien Peyret, from the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK and Dr Emmanuel Margolin from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. You can find out more about them on page 2. One of their tasks will be to help raise the profile of the ISPMF on social media, and this week we launched the @ISPMF twitter account! All tweeting members are encouraged to follow us, and in return we will follow you back! If you attend any relevant meetings, give talks, get involved in public engagement activities, spot papers or articles of interest, please tag @ISPMF on to your tweets. If you feel like tweeting a photo to say hello, we will retweet

it too and together we can help further build the ISPMF community by raising the profiles and visibility of our members.

Video Competition: We are also seeking budding science communicators interested in filming a short 2-3-minute video (smart phone style) showcasing anything related to molecular farming. Entries will be shared on social media, with the best selected for publishing on the ISPMF website. Free registration to the ISPMF conference in Rome 2020 is up for grabs for the lucky winner of the best video (travel bursaries also available). Send your entries to Inga.hitzeroth@uct.ac.za by the 1st February.

ISPMF 2020 Conference: June 8-10. Rome, Italy:

Full details and timeline of important dates for the

Rome Conference can be found on page 3. The

earliest deadlines to note being those for abstracts

(13th March) and for bursaries (30th March).

In this issue:

P1: Welcome Introduction

P2: New members to the communications team

P3: ISPMF Rome 2020

P4/P5: Workshop highlights

P6/P7: Publication news

P8/P11: Corporate members

P12: Other upcoming events

INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR PLANT MOLECULAR FARMING NEWSLETTER ISSUE 17 DECEMBER 2019

We are now on

Twitter!

Follow us @ISPMF

Welcoming two new faces to the

communications team:

Hadrien Peyret is a postdoctoral scientist in George

Lomonossoff’s group at the John Innes Centre in

Norwich (UK). Among other things, he has worked on

plant-produced VLP vaccines and vectors for the

overexpression of proteins in plants. He is currently

working with the Newcotiana consortium (EU Horizon

2020) which aims to create new varieties of Nicotiana

plants which have been optimised for plant molecular

farming. Further info can be found at here.

You can read more about some of Hadrien’s work on

page 4.

Emmanuel Margolin is a postdoctoral scientist at the

University of Cape Town where he is affiliated to the

Biopharming Research Unit and the Antiviral

Research Group. His research focusses on

engineering the secretory pathway to improve the

production of complex viral glycoproteins in Nicotiana

benthamiana. He is also involved in the production of

virus-like particles and synthetic nanoparticles for the

display of vaccine antigens. These projects

specifically aim to develop vaccines for pandemic and

emerging viral pathogens. Feel free to get in touch by

email – Emmanuel.margolin@uct.ac.za

ISPMF CONFERENCE

8-10th June 2020, Rome, Italy.

Venue: Auditorium della Tecnica, Viale dell'Astronomia, 30 Roma I-00144

Important Dates:

13th

March, 2020

Submission deadline for oral and

poster presentations

30th March Deadline for applying ISPMF bursaries

3rd April, Notification of presentation acceptance

9th April Notification of ISPMF bursaries

11th May, Deadline for registration

1st June, Final program released

8th - 10th

June, Conference

We solicit abstracts for oral talks and for posters

to be sent to biotecnologie@enea.it for the

attention of Dr Silvia Massa.

Requirement for bursary applications: is ISPMF

membership 1st April 2020 – 30 March 2021 via the

ISPMF website.

Send your abstract, 2-page CV and a motivation

letter to Kirsi-Marja.Oksman@vtt.fi

Conference dinner Venue: Civita Cultura Holding,

Piazza Venezia, 11 with a view of the Forum and

Colosseo in the background.

Metro station Line B: EUR MAGLIANA.

Hotels nearby: To be reserved early- Rank

Quality/Price:

1. Ibis Styles Roma Eur Viale Egeo, 133, (0,8 km

distance)

2. Hotel Novotel Roma Eur, Viale dell'Oceano

Pacifico, 153 (1,8 km distance) ,

3. Hotel dei Congressi Roma Eur, Viale

Shakespeare, 29 (1,1 Km distance)

4.Hotel American Palace Roma Eur, Via Laurentina,

554, (2 km distance -Line B Station Laurentina - 4

min travel by underground)

5. Eur Executive Inn, Roma Eur Viale Pasteur, 66,

(0.5 km distance- B&B-)

Further information on the program and registration

details will be available soon on the ISPMF website.

Workshop Updates

Two workshops were held by ISPMF members

during the year to stimulate interest in molecular

pharming.

Plant Biologics and Immunodiagnostics IV,

Coimbatore, India 2019

Report by Dr Sathishkumar

The Fourth Indo-UK Joint workshop on Plant Biologics

and Immmunodiagnostics was held in Coimbatore,

India, at the Department of Biotechnology, Bharathiar

University on 3rd and 4th October, 2019. This series of

workshops has been sponsored by the UGC - UK–

India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI)

since 2011 and focuses on Molecular Pharming

approaches to manufacture biologics and vaccines.

Ms. Janaka Pusphanathan, Director of the British

Council, South India was the guest of honour at the

opening ceremony and congratulated the Bharathiar

University, Plant Genetic Engineering laboratory team

and St. George’s University of London, Molecular

Immunology group on their long-term commitment to

collaborative research and the technical training

workshop over many years.

The two-day workshop comprised of a busy

programme of lectures, and practical sessions on

recent techniques including agroinfiltration, vacuum

infiltration, protein purification from plant crude extract

and analysis and quantification of plant-expressed

antigens, giving participants ample opportunity to gain

hands-on experience in key laboratory

techniques, and an informal space to

engage with experts in the field.

Key lectures from Prof. Julian Ma and

Dr. Mathew Paul, St. George’s

University, explained the technologies

available and the progress in the field

around the world. Two Indian industry

experts, Dr. Balamurugan and Dr.

Ashwini Malla from Bharat Biotech,

Hyderabad gave valuable insights into

commercial and manufacturing

considerations for new technologies,

and in particular, how they applied to

new plant biotechnologies. Additional

talks were given by past and current

members of the Bharathiar University

research team.

4th annual Molecular Pharming workshop,

Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok,

Thailand

Report by Dr. Phoolcharoen

The Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at

Chulalongkorn University, Thailand hosted its 4th

annual Molecular Pharming workshop in Bangkok on

23rd October 2019. Over 50 Pharmaceutical Sciences

Students attended, with lectures about plant-

produced biopharmaceuticals in the morning, and

hands-on demonstrations and experiments in the

afternoon. The students also took part in a self-

learning exercise where they discussed key findings

from six seminal Molecular Pharming papers in small

groups and presented these to the workshop

participants.

The workshop was organised by Associate Professor

Waranyoo Phoolcharoen and her research group, and

Professor Julian Ma, St. George's, University of

London using financial support from a Newton

International Follow-on scholarship from the Royal

Society, UK.

An add-on Global Public Engagement in Science

event was also held at Chulalongkorn University

Demonstration Secondary School, with support from

St. George’s, University of London. Fifty-four 14-16 yr

old students heard short talks on plant biotechnology,

and took part in a classroom demonstration of green

fluorescent protein expression in plants, and

agroinfiltration in tobacco plants.

Three Thai post-graduate students also gave talks

about their own career paths and how they developed

their interests in plant biotechnology. Finally, a four

week “citizen science” experiment was set up for the

students, asking them to help identify optimal growing

conditions for N. benthamiana in Thailand. If anyone

is interested in further details about either the

workshop or the public engagement event, please feel

free to contact either jma@sgul.ac.uk or

phwaranyoo@gmail.com.

PLEASE GET IN TOUCH IF YOU WOULD

LIKE TO SHARE NEWS ON ANY

MOLECULAR FARMING OUTREACH

ACTIVITIES OR EVENTS YOU HAVE

BEEN INVOLVED WITH

ISPMF NEWSLETTER | Issue 17 6

Publication Highlight:

Hadrien Peyret

Our recent publication published

in Plant Methods describes the

design and use of synthetic UTRs

for use as modulators of

translational efficiency in plant

overexpression vectors. The new

UTRs were rationally designed

and were found to function

orthogonally: i.e. the 5'- and 3' -

UTRs effects are additive when

combined rather than synergistic.

This means that they can be used

in various combinations to tailor

protein expression levels, which

may be of great use for the co-

expression of multiple proteins.

More importantly, the work

describes two new expression

vectors for transient expression

in plants: pHRE gives similar

expression levels to the well-

known pEAQ-HT but has UTRs

designed to allow easy 1-step

replacement with other

sequences, making it ideal for

testing various UTR

combinations. The other vector,

pHREAC, yields about twice as

much recombinant protein as

pEAQ-HT, and still functions on

the same principle of extremely

efficient translation without viral

replication. Because this work

was funded in part by Open Plant

(a consortium that advocates for

open-source, free-to-use tools for

plant biotechnology), we wanted

to make these vectors (as well as

the suite of new, synthetic UTRs)

as open and easy to access as

possible. For this reason, I

included all of the UTR

sequences in the Plant Methods

publication and deposited the

complete sequences of pHRE

and pHREAC with GenBank

(accession numbers

MK521429.1 and MK521430.1,

respectively). Furthermore, I

have deposited these two

plasmids with Addgene so that

labs wishing to use them will

soon be able to simply order

them from the repository. Finally,

the John Innes Centre is currently

considering whether these two

plasmids can be shared under

the terms of the new Open

Material Transfer Agreement

(Open MTA, more details here) ,

which allows for much greater

freedom to operate, particularly

with regards to commercial

entities, than the standard

Uniform Biological (or "UB")

MTA. The Open MTA is quite a

new concept, and Contracts or

Technology Transfer offices will

need some time to become

comfortable with the use of such

radical protocols for sharing

materials.

Members publications:

Frontiers in Plant Science - Research Topic on

Plant Molecular Farming based mainly on the

presentations during the ISPMF Helsinki Conference

in 2018. The editors for this specific Research Topic

were Drs Anneli Ritala, Kirsi-Marja Oksman-

Caldentey, Jussi Joensuu, Heiko Rischer and Suvi

Häkkinen from VTT Technical Research Centre of

Finland Ltd. Now the collection is almost complete

and 22 published articles has already over 41000

views to date.

Publication from Waranyoo Phoolcharoen lab: Structural and In Vitro Functional Analyses of Novel Plant-Produced Anti-Human PD1 Antibody. Rattanapisit, K., Phakham, T., Buranapraditkun, S. et al. Sci Rep 9, 15205 (2019) Nature Scientific Reports doi:10.1038/s41598-019-51656-1 Publication from Ann Depicker Recombinant simplified monomeric VHH-Fc

antibodies provide new opportunities for passive

immunization. De Greve H., Virdi V., Bakshi S. and

Depicker A. Current Opinion in Biotechnology (2020)

Publications from the Lomonossoff lab: Combining Transient Expression and Cryo-EM to Obtain High-Resolution Structures of Luteovirid Particles. Byrne MJ, Steele JFC, Hesketh EL, Walden M, Thompson RF, Lomonossoff GP, Ranson NA. Structure. 2019 Oct 8. pii: S0969-2126(19)30316-8. doi: 10.1016/j.str.2019.09.010. [Epub ahead of print] Improving plant transient expression through the rational design of synthetic 5' and 3' untranslated regions.Peyret H, Brown JKM, Lomonossoff GP. Plant Methods. 2019 Sep 18;15:108. doi: 10.1186/s13007-019-0494-9. eCollection 2019. Bluetongue virus outer-capsid protein VP2 expressed in Nicotiana benthamiana raises neutralising antibodies and a protective immune response in IFNAR -/- mice.

Fay PC, Attoui H, Batten C, Mohd Jaafar F, Lomonossoff GP, Daly JM, Mertens PPC. Vaccine X. 2019 Jun 22;2:100026. doi: 10.1016/j.jvacx.2019.100026. eCollection 2019 Aug 9. PMID: 31384743 Free PMC Article Plant-Made Nervous Necrosis Virus-Like Particles Protect Fish Against Disease. Marsian J, Hurdiss DL, Ranson NA, Ritala A, Paley R, Cano I, Lomonossoff GP. Front Plant Sci. 2019 Jul 9;10:880. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2019.00880. eCollection 2019. PMID: 31354759 Free PMC Article Affimer reagents as tools in diagnosing plant virus diseases. Hesketh EL, Tiede C, Adamson H, Adams TL, Byrne MJ, Meshcheriakova Y, Kruse I, McPherson MJ, Lomonossoff GP, Tomlinson DC, Ranson NA. Sci Rep. 2019 May 17;9(1):7524. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-43945-6. PMID: 31101847 Free PMC Article Epitope Presentation of Dengue Viral Envelope Glycoprotein Domain III on Hepatitis B Core Protein Virus-Like Particles Produced in Nicotiana benthamiana. Pang EL, Peyret H, Ramirez A, Loh HS, Lai KS, Fang CM, Rosenberg WM, Lomonossoff GP. Front Plant Sci. 2019 Apr 16;10:455. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2019.00455. eCollection 2019. PMID: 31057572 Publications from the Biopharming Research Unit in Cape Town: A Review of Current Understanding and Vaccine Development. Dennis SJ, Meyers AE, Hitzeroth II, Rybicki EP (2019) African Horse Sickness: Viruses. 2019 11 (9) 844 doi: 10.3390/v11090844.

Substitution of Human Papillomavirus Type 16 L2 Neutralising Epitopes into L1 Surface Loops: The Effect on Virus-Like Particle Assembly and Immunogenicity. Chabeda A, van Zyl AR, Rybicki EP, Hitzeroth II (2019) Frontiers in Plant Science 10, 779 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2019.00779 Immunogenicity of plant‐produced porcine circovirus‐like particles in mice. Gunter CJ, Regnard GL, Rybicki EP and Hitzeroth II (2019). Plant Biotechnology https://doi.org/10.1111/pbi.13097 Molecular Pharming for Low and Middle Income Countries. Murad S, Sebastian Fuller S, Menary J, Moore C, Pinneh E, Szeto T, Hitzeroth I, Freire M, Taychakhoonavudh S, Phoolcharoen W and MaJK (2020) Current Opinion in Biotechnology, 61:53–59 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copbio.2019.10.005 Production and immunogenicity of soluble plant-produced HIV-1 subtype C envelope gp140 immunogens E Margolin, R Chapman, AE Meyers, MT van Diepen, P Ximba, T Hermanus, C Crowther, B Weber, L Morris, A-L Williamson, EP Rybicki. (2019).. Frontiers in Plant Sciences. 10: 1378. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2019.01378

Publication by NOMADS

Broad and efficient control of Klebsiella pathogens by

peptidoglycan-degrading and pore-forming

bacteriocins. Denkovskienė E, Paškevičius Š,

Misiūnas A, Stočkūnaitė B, Starkevič U, Vitkauskienė

A, Hahn-Löbmann S, Schulz S, Giritch A, Gleba Y,

Ražanskienė A. Klebicins. Scientific Reports (2019)

9: 15422; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-

019-51969-1

Congratulations

Congratulations to George Lomonossoff who has recently been awarded BBSRC (UK) funding for his grant entitled "A world of virus structures: understanding how non-icosahedral capsids are built" - although it doesn't say it in the title, the virus structures are made by transient expression in plants

so it is another feather in the cap for plant-based expression!'

If you have news to celebrate with the ISPMF

community please let us know.

SPOTLIGHT ON ISPMF CORPORATE MEMBERS

The ISPMF is made up of a diverse collection of individual academic members, together with a number of research institutes and companies. In this section we shine the spot light on some of our larger corporate members (click on the logo’s to visit their websites).

Greenovation Biotech GmbH was the company behind the WORLD'S 1st LARGE-SCALE BIOREACTOR FOR MOSS BASED BRYOTECHNOLOGY

The first-of-its kind BIOSTAT®STR 500 single-usebioreactor is fitted with more than 5000 LEDs and is integrated into the production process of moss-aGal (agalsidase), the lead drug candidate in Greenovation’s pipeline.

BryoTechnology based on moss plants (Physcomitrella patens) has been developed to produce complex biopharmaceuticals for treating rare diseases. Moss-aGal is a glycosylated alpha-galactosidase developed as Enzyme Replacement Therapy for the treatment of Fabry disease and has successfully completed a Phase I trial in 2017. The first single-use Bioreactor BIOSTAT®STR 500 is an important step towards further scale up of Greenovation’s production capacity

Greenovation praised Sartorius AG on being a company open to thinking along new lines in biopharmaceutical manufacturing to help realise this innovative project.

This stirred-tank bioreactor, which contains a single-use Flexsafe® STR bag, has been fitted with more than 5000 LEDs on the inside of the vessel to provide the essential light energy required for moss growth. The system is patent pending and can potentially be adapted to any manufacturing process requiring light energy.

In this unique pilot project the customized BIOSTAT STR® will now go into production at Greenovation’s facility and will be integrated in the moss-aGal production process.

In interview (previously published last year) Greenovation’s Chief Scientific Dr. Schaaf talked about the pilot project with the Sartorius Integrated Solutions Team and his plans for the future:

Sartorius: Mr. Schaaf, what do you see as the major advantages of the moss Physcomitrella patens, which you are currently using for the production of your products?

Mr. Schaaf: The advantages are a combination of issues … Since moss is a higher plant, the expression machinery is similar to that of CHO cells. Plants are photoautotrophic and use light energy and CO2 as carbon source to create biomass. So we are able to use chemically defined media, which does not contain any organic compounds, and we are not using any animalderived components. Working with only water and inorganic salts helps create a risk-free system, which is biologically safe with no risk from viruses or pathogens.

The genetics of moss is also important. Moss is haploid meaning that there is only one copy of the genome, which is always dominant. Homologous recombination is a DNA repair mechanism, which every higher organism has, but moss does this at a very high rate, which is advantageous. We use this fact to target gene sequences very efficiently to modify the organism. In this way, we can e.g. eliminate proteases that are harmful during

The protein production processes. Due to this fact, moss is very valuable for biopharmaceutial production.

Also, it’s important to mention that in contrast to mammalian cell cultures, moss strains are regenerated complete plants, which are genetically very stable. This is important for long production processes, since there is no genetic drift as is sometimes observed in mammalian cultures. In the process we are only using antibiotics in the very beginning during strain development, but not later

during production, which is another important advantage of producing drugs in moss.

Sartorius: We are very excited to work with you on this new pilot project with the customized BIOSTAT STR® 500 bioreactor for photoautotrophic organisms. May we ask why you have decided to run the project with our team?

Mr. Schaaf: In fact, this is not our first project with Sartorius. We have already had very good experience in a former project, so we are convinced that Sartorius is the right partner for a special engineering solution like this. We are very excited that Sartorius is open to trying new ways with us and that they are willing to enter into a new novel pilot project.

The advantage of working with Sartorius is that based on their current product portfolio, they are able to adapt these products according to the customer’s bespoke needs and are addressing an individual engineering project.

We are very happy with the support, speed and management of this project by Sartorius.

Sartorius: Where do you see the biggest challenges of our common project?

Mr. Schaaf: Well, I do not have any doubts that Sartorius can manage this project, but the heat generated inside the fermenter, caused by the large amount of light given-off by the LEDs, will definitely be a challenge that the engineers will need to focus on.

Sartorius: How will you test the performance on site?

Mr. Schaaf: We will run moss cultures and aGal production processes and compare them to our established processes. The question will be whether we will obtain sufficient material for market supply and sufficient material with similar quality for market supply. But as the project looks now, I do not have any doubts on the success.

Sartorius: Which are your future plans for the development of your production pipeline?

Mr. Schaaf: We are thinking about Phase II and III as well as commercial production for aGal. Also, we have three more products in the pipeline with very good results in the pre-clinical evaluation. So we would like to expand our production for those molecules to GMP production.

Depending on the outcome of our current pilot project involving the customized BIOSTAT STR® 500, we are interested in scaling-up our production process further. Initially we will require 1000 – 2000L, but in a few years we will require ~8000 – 10000L production volume.

Sartorius: How do you value the Sartorius “Integrated Solutions” approach including upstream and

downstream processes for this critical development phase of your production?

Mr. Schaaf: Currently we have not implemented downstream processes in this project, but we are in discussion with the Sartorius Integrated Solutions Team regarding the potential design of a new moss facility – taking advantage of the Sartorius expertise in executing special engineering solutions.

‘Considering that BryoTechnology may be an important technology for biomanufacturing in the near future, the development of large-scale bioreactors for commercial production of photoautotrophic organisms is an important step on the way to drugs produced in plants without the risk of infection from viruses and pathogens. Combining such customized bioreactor solutions with the Sartorius approach of intensified bioprocesses could make biomanufacturing a little greener’.

MEDICAGO’S NEW DRUG SUBMISSION ACCEPTED FOR SCIENTIFIC REVIEW BY HEALTH CANADA: an important step for Medicago towards commercialization of its innovative influenza vaccine.

Quebec City, Oct 01, 2019: Medicago, a biotechnology company and global leader in the development and production of plant-derived vaccines with headquarters in Quebec City, announces today that Health Canada accepted for scientific review its New Drug Submission (NDS) for a plant-based Quadrivalent Virus-Like Particle (QVLP) influenza recombinant vaccine.

“This is an important step on the road to commercialization”, said Dr. Bruce Clark, President & Chief Executive Officer of Medicago. “Approval of our application will enable us to offer an innovative influenza vaccine which is manufactured using the natural metabolic capability of plants. When approved, Medicago’s QVLP vaccine can provide an alternative to current licensed vaccines to help in the prevention of seasonal influenza infections” he added. Pending the regulatory review, Medicago’s new vaccine could become available before the next influenza season in Canada, in 2020.

Developed in Quebec City, Medicago’s technology uses the ability of natural, non-transgenic plants,

serving as “mini factories”, to efficiently produce recombinant proteins to generate the virus-like particles (VLP) contained in its vaccine. The recombinant technology reduces the risk of virus mutation that could occur with certain other production systems and that may impact vaccine efficacy. The VLPs are designed to mimic the influenza virus in size and shape but are not infectious since they are lacking the genetic material to replicate. Medicago’s influenza development program also includes pandemic and universal flu investigational vaccines.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), each year, influenza epidemics cause 3 to 5 million cases of severe illness and about 290,000 to 650,000 deaths around the globe. In Canada, the authorities indicate that Influenza and pneumonia are ranked among the top 10 leading causes of death with approximately 12,200 hospitalizations and 3,500 deaths each year.

In 2018, Medicago launched the construction of a new $245 million manufacturing complex in Quebec City that will include research and development as well as production facilities. This new production factory will complement the commercial production facility in Durham, North Carolina and expand annual production capacity up to 50 million doses of quadrivalent vaccines against seasonal influenza. The on-line press release can be found here.

NOMAD Bioscience Receives Its GRAS Regulatory Clearance In USA For Bacteriocins Salmocins As Processing Aids for Control of Salmonella In Food.

October 2019

NOMAD Bioscience received a formal ‘no questions’ letter from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in response to NOMAD’s GRAS notice GRN

824 describing use of bacteriocins Salmocins produced in plants as ‘Food Processing Aids’ for control of major foodborne pathogenic strains of Salmonella enterica in foods including meat, poultry, fish and egg products. Salmocins are natural non-antibiotic antibacterial products discovered by NOMAD. The FDA’s response represents the fifth regulatory concurrence from the Agency that plant-made bacteriocins are safe to use on foods and it paves the way for industrial production of Salmocins as novel antibacterial food processing aids and food substances.

Because the efficacy of antimicrobials applied to US meats is under the jurisdiction of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) co-reviewed with FDA NOMAD's data package and concluded that Salmocins produced in plants meet USDA suitability criteria.

Salmonella causes an estimated 1 million illnesses in the United States each year, resulting in an estimated 19,000 hospitalizations and 380 deaths. Over the last five years (2013–2018), 51 Salmonella outbreaks have been recorded in USA. Most of the food poisonings were due to contaminated poultry or vegetables and fruits, but also red meats and fish. Worldwide, Salmonella contamination in the food chain is one of four key global causes of diarrhoeal diseases, with 550 million annual illnesses.

NOMAD scientists have researched Salmonella genomic databases for bacteriocin analogues and identified, cloned and manufactured in plants such proteins; they termed them Salmocins. Some Salmocins were found to possess broad antimicrobial activity against all 99 major Salmonella pathovars. They also showed remarkably high potency (>106 AU/μg recombinant protein, or >103 higher than colicins) against major pathogenic target strains. Treatment of various food matrices contaminated with key pathogenic serovars confirmed Salmocin efficacy as a food safety intervention against Salmonella.

Salmocins are very safe as they have no known activity against beneficial intestinal flora and they attack bacterial structures and cellular targets that do not exist in mammalian tissues. Humans are already exposed to Salmocin-producing bacteria that naturally reside in the gut.

In addition to Salmocins, other plant-produced bacterial and bacteriophage antimicrobial proteins (Bacteriocins and Bacteriophage Lysins) are being developed by NOMAD as inexpensive food substances and food processing aids for the broad control of bacterial pathogens (Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica and Clostridium perfringens) in food products. NOMAD is also actively developing

Bacteriocins and Bacteriophage Lysins as medical alternatives to antibiotics, with its pre-clinical research focused on novel antibacterial proteins for control of major multi-drug resistant Gram-negative pathogens including Escherichia, Salmonella, Pseudomonas and Klebsiella.

NOMAD Bioscience GmbH has announced that the European Patent Office has issued the "DECISION TO GRANT A EUROPEAN PATENT" for the NOMAD’s patent application ‘Colicin M for the control of EHEC’, European Patent No. 3 097 783. This is the second issued patent which protects NOMAD’s Colicins, non-antibiotic antibacterial proteins and the company’s lead product candidates for food and feed safety market. The first patent of this family was granted in the United States in February, 2019; US Patent No. 10,201,168.

Other Corporate members and links to websites

Kentucky Bioprocessing Inc, USA

https://www.kentuckybioprocessing.com/

Mapp Biopharmaceuticals, USA

https://mappbio.com/

VTT Tech Res Centre, Finland

https://www.vttresearch.com/

ICON GENETICS GMBH

https://www.icongenetics.com/

Upcoming events

VIROLOGY AFRICA 2020

10-14 February 2020

Radisson Blu Hotel, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town, South Africa

Trailfinders.scot

https://www.virologyafrica2020.com/

VIRUS-LIKE PARTICLE & NANO-PARTICLE VACCINES

15-17 June 2020,

University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia

Closing Date for oral presentation: Friday 10th January 2020.

Closing date for late-breaker oral and poster presentation: Friday 15th May 2020.

http://www.meetingsmanagement.com/vlpnpv_2020

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Emmanuel Margolin is a postdoctoral scientist at the University of Cape Town in the Biopharming Research Unit and the Antiviral Research

Group.

Hadrien Peyret is a postdoctoral scientist in George Lomonossoff’s group at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, UK.