Press Release Date: 12/18/2008

Upfront Chromatography Enables New Revenue Opportunities From Crop Processing

The functional proteins isolated using this process have a wide range of functionalities comparable to high grade proteins such as egg and milk proteins. The plant currently has the capacity to produce 1000 tonnes of functional protein per year and Solanic aims to produce 10,000 tonnes of protein per year in a second phase, which will be the world’s largest industrial protein chromatography installation by far.

“The adsorbent allows us to extract previously inaccessible proteins from our waste stream”, commented Marco Giuseppin, director R&D of Solanic.

The installation at the Solanic plant employs Upfront’s proprietary mixed mode ligand chemistry to enable isolation of functional proteins without using traditional heat coagulation methods. Upfront offers extensive technical and regulatory support to its customers and has worked in partnership with Solanic to ensure seamless transfer of know-how in the application of these adsorbents.

“The Rhobust™ platform offers companies significant new revenue opportunities in the protein food ingredients industry”, commented Allan Lihme, Technical Director at Upfront Chromatography. “Our technology has already been proven to be suitable across a wide range of industries and we are currently looking at numerous applications in crop processing such as wheat, pea, corn, oats and other cereals. The question we would like to ask food ingredient companies is: who wants to be the next protein success story?”

About Rhobust™ technology

The Rhobust™ processing platform is based on Second Generation Expanded Bed Adsorption (EBA) and enables the recovery of high value functional proteins from low value, high volume raw materials and process side streams. It can be used to process a variety of side streams from crop processing, including but not limited to potatoes, wheat, pea, corn, oats and other cereals. The columns are operated at atmospheric pressure and are capable of processing liquid streams at very high flow rates without the need for prior cleanup and high pressure pumps.

Selection of proprietary Mixed Mode Ligands enables sensitive control the capture and release of target molecules by simple changes of pH, which can be readily implemented in large-scale production facilities and maintain biological activity of the product. The chemistry of the mixed mode ligands and adsorbent beads employed are exceptionally stable to harsh regeneration under a wide range of cleaning and elution conditions. This key characteristic enables the column and associated fluid lines to be washed and decontaminated with hot caustic solutions such as 1M NaOH.

About Upfront Chromatography

Upfront Chromatography A/S develops and manufactures innovative products and technologies for isolation and recovery of biotherapeutics and functional biomolecules directly from bioreactors and industrial side-streams.

For customised separation services, Upfront offers access to its proprietary Rhobust™, universal process platform combined with extensive technical and regulatory support. From a feasibility study to commissioning of the final installation, Upfront works with its customers to develop adsorbents, ligand chemistry, columns and other hardware to optimise process performance. Upfront are currently developing the world´s largest chromatography system.

Upfront focuses in two major application areas: Bioprocess offers a novel solution to customers who need to recover and purify monoclonal antibodies, therapeutic proteins and other biomolecules from blood plasma or bioreactors, under cGMP-compliant conditions. Biomine enables the isolation of high-value functional proteins and other biomolecules from bioreactors or industrial process side-streams for use as food ingredients, industrial enzymes, nutraceuticals and healthcare products.

Upfront’s research, development and ISO9001-compliant manufacturing facility is situated in Copenhagen, Denmark. Please visit: www.upfront-dk.com

For further information, please contact:

At Upfront Chromatography:

Natalya Clark, Business Development Manager
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At Northbank Communications:

Ben Routley, Account Manager
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T: +44 (0) 1260 296500