Development of an Integrated Bioprocess for production of potential Malaria vaccines with Pichia pastoris

Pichia pastoris was used for the expression of an artificial fusion protein D1M1 – a potential Malaria vaccine. A fully automated integrated bioprocess was set up which combined upstream and downstream operations and has been performed in alternating fed batch cycles with parallel protein capture by Expanded Bed Adsorption Chromatography. Design of Experiments was used to study the influence of procedural factors on protein recovery and purity. As a result it was achieved to purify the protein to a purity of up to 87 % and a recovery of 51 % was reached in a single downstream operation.