Publications by authors named "Dries Van Herpe"

Article Synopsis
  • Komagataella phaffii, formerly known as Pichia pastoris, is widely used for producing recombinant proteins for therapeutics and food, but the original strain NRRL Y-11430 is restricted.
  • Researchers identified the NCYC 2543 strain from 1954 as a foundation for developing an open-access strain called OPENPichia, designed to enable widespread use without restrictions.
  • By modifying the HOC1 gene in NCYC 2543, the team enhanced its ability to take up DNA and improve protein secretion, providing a genome-sequenced strain and a versatile expression vector toolkit for the biotech community.
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Broadly neutralizing antibodies are an important treatment for individuals with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Antibody-based therapeutics are also essential for pandemic preparedness against future outbreaks. Camelid-derived single domain antibodies (VHHs) exhibit potent antimicrobial activity and are being developed as SARS-CoV-2–neutralizing antibody-like therapeutics.

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As a biorefinery platform host, Escherichia coli has been used extensively to produce metabolites of commercial interest. Integration of foreign DNA onto the bacterial genome allows for stable expression overcoming the need for plasmid expression and its associated instability. Despite the development of numerous tools and genome editing technologies, the question of where to incorporate a synthetic pathway remains unanswered.

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Chromosomal integration of biosynthetic pathways for the biotechnological production of high-value chemicals is a necessity to develop industrial strains with a high long-term stability and a low production variability. However, the introduction of multiple transcription units into the microbial genome remains a difficult task. Despite recent advances, current methodologies are either laborious or efficiencies highly fluctuate depending on the length and the type of the construct.

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