Biotica and University of Cambridge Awarded

Biotica Technology and the University of Cambridge have received the funding for a three year programme of research into new heterologous expression systems for the production of polyketides, a prolific source of natural product-based therapeutics.

The £1m project is part funded by an award from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) of £280,000 to Biotica; and from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) of £210,000 to the University of Cambridge, via the LINK Applied Genomics Programme. The remainder of the financial support for the project will be provided by Biotica.

The project brings together the drug discovery and synthetic biology skills of Biotica with the experience at the University of Cambridge in the analysis and understanding of polyketide biosynthesis. The project will focus on the development of a toolkit for the efficient production of polyketides. This toolkit will include a number of host strains for the production of these compounds together with versatile vectors.

Polyketides are naturally occurring drug-like molecules produced by micro-organisms found in soil. Polyketides are probably the richest source of natural products for marketed drugs and currently address cancer, cardiovascular and other diseases. In 2003, sales of polyketide-derived drugs exceeded $20bn.

The department of Biochemistry's research in the area is led by Professor Peter Leadlay, professor of Molecular Enzymology and one of the original scientific founders of Biotica. 'My research group has been exploring fundamental problems in obtaining high level expression of genes that govern natural production of polyketide drugs.' explained Professor Leadlay. 'The very welcome support from BBSRC to my laboratory under this grant will significantly accelerate our discovery of new ways to improve this process. The collaboration with Biotica promises not only a rapid translation of those findings into industrial application, but also will give us access to a really powerful molecular biological toolkit they are developing.'

Commenting on the grant, Dr Ming Zhang, Research Director of Biotica, said: 'The DTI grant will help to further broaden our synthetic biology platform for the production of specific polyketides and will be of significant benefit to our drug-discovery objectives. I'm very confident that this collaboration with the University of Cambridge will be highly productive and help accelerate our drug discovery programmes.'