Overview

At PolyBatics, we've engineered a new technology platform that is changing the way industry approaches their standardized laboratory processes and biomanufacturing best practices.

Now there is a single-step process for producing a highly customizable, biodegradable polymer bead platform for use in many applications from industrial biotechnology to health sciences.  We engineer both the beads and the attached proteins inside the same cells without the use of toxic bonding agents and expensive post-processing. Through this novel in vivo approach, we achieve three things traditional biobead production cannot:

Lower Costs

Conventional resin bead production is an expensive, laborious process: Proteins are created that must be captured, washed and purified, and then are attached onto a resin bead, which is created in an altogether separate process. Since our method involves creating the bead and protein at the same time, we are able to produce biobeads more cost effectively. The first product in the pipeline is PolyBindZ, a disposable replacement for agarose immobilized Protein A. This prior method costs in the range of $15,000/liter, but can now be made available for a small fraction of that.

Low Toxicity

Traditional resin production uses a variety of toxic solvents in the production of the resin beads. Subsequent linking of proteins to the surface of the resin beads uses a variety of toxic solvents for the cross-linking and subsequent washing of the resin beads. The Polybatics process is very environmentally safe as it uses simple sugars, salts and buffers for the in vivo production of the complete functional biobeads.

Multi-functionality

In the past, creating a biobead with multiple proteins was an extremely difficult task; the only way to attach a new protein was to remove the old one. But we've achieved something unprecedented: the expression of multiple proteins on the same bead. By inserting hybrid genes into the bacteria, the bacteria are able to bind multiple compounds to the binding site, allowing for broad applicability and combinations. For example, we've already manufactured beads with both Gold Binding Protein and antibodies—a combination that can be used in immunochromatography tests.