Due to their role in quantitative analysis methods reference marker compounds such as cytochrome P450 are of major importance for researching pharmaceutical companies. Yet, such reference markers are rarely available on the market and are thus – irrespective of other methods - replaced by radioactive reference markers which create problems in respect to the environment.
With financial support of the DBU, the project partners PomBioTech GmbH, the Institute of Biochemistry at Universität des Saarlandes and ORGANOBALANCE GmbH, are developing a new biotechnological production method for cortisol, the major human glucocorticoid, and for cytochrome P450 reference standards (eg, 4‘-Hydroxydiclofenac) that can also be labeled with non-radioactive isotopes.
Biotechnology is not only of great industrial value, but also plays an important role for environmental protection. In contrast to chemical methods biotechnological approaches allow the use of specialized enzymes that are able to catalyze specific reactions under environmentally friendly conditions. The advantages of the developed procedure are:
• Avoidance of environmentally harmful gases
• Avoidance of the production of unwanted toxic by-products
• Reduced use of organic solvents
• Low-cost production of a chemically pure metabolite
Project Operation
Universität des Saarlandes
Lehrstuhl für Biochemie
Prof. Dr. Rita Bernhardt
Telefon 0681|302-3005
ritabern@mx.uni-saarland.de
http://bernhardt.biochem.uni-sb.de/
Cooperation Partners
PomBioTech GmbH
Dr. Matthias Bureik
Telefon 0681|302-64901
matthias.bureik@pombiotech.de
www.pombiotech.de
ORGANOBALANCE GmbH
Dr. Christine Lang
Telefon 030|46307200
lang@organobalance.de
www.organobalance.de
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