Immobilized enzymes have been around for some time and offer
advantages over non-immobilized enzyme in situations where reuse or continuous
flow are practical and in extreme environments such as high-temperature or
high/low pH. However, the major drawback of current immobilization platforms on
the market is
. Many immobilizations use expensive support materials which
make favorable economics unattainable.
Guild BioSciences’ patented enzyme immobilization
platform, ImmobiZyme™, uses low-cost biomass material as a significant
component in the immobilization. ImmobiZyme™
drastically lowers the immobilization cost and provides a stronger economical
case to replace non-immobilized enzymes in applications, or to improve the
economics of applications that currently use other immobilization techniques.
There are several immobilization technologies
available with different raw material costs. The following graph compares ImmobiZyme™ with a polymeric resin bead immobilization
technology. Due to the significant cost saving, this graph uses 2 y-axes with
the left y-axis (red) for the resin costs and the right y-axis (blue) for the
ImmobiZyme™ costs. The
raw material costs are used to generate a cost per unit weight of enzyme
immobilized. Various raw material costs are factored into the graph below.
As seen in the graph, the lowest resin cost (brightest red
line) is significantly greater than the highest ImmobiZyme™
cost (darkest blue line). The graph clearly illustrates the significant cost
saving particularly at low enzyme loadings (left side of x-axis). This is
significant as some resin immobilization technologies only allow for low enzyme
loadings. The graph illustrates the raw material
cost of the ImmobiZyme™ technology is
more than an order of magnitude lower
compared to the resin immobilization technology.
ImmobiZyme™ - Immobilized Enzyme Pellets
ImmobiZyme™
imparts characteristics commonly found through immobilization such as:
stability in environments not suitable for non-immobilized enzymes, improved
storage stability, the ability to reuse the enzyme, and to use the enzyme in
continuous flow applications. Additionally, ImmobiZyme™ can include a high percentage of enzyme in its
immobilization and retains a high degree of activity after immobilization both
of which are not common in many immobilization platforms.
A unique feature of ImmobiZyme™ is the ability to use biomass exclusively in our
immobilization. As many of these biomass components have been determined as
Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS; US FDA) in other applications, it is likely
that ImmobiZyme™ could also be used in applications where GRAS
is required. This is not a common feature among other immobilization platforms.
Additionally, this feature can reduce disposal costs associated with ImmobiZyme™ compared to other immobilization platforms.
ImmobiZyme™ can also be used to immobilize other
proteins (antibodies), aptamers, DNA or RNA.
To find out if ImmobiZyme™ can provide a cost-effective
solution for your application please email us at info@guildbiosciences.com.