Opera Bioscience produces high-purity, low-cost recombinant protein ingredients for innovators who suffer from low yields or complicated downstream processing, empowering them to create novel, cost-effective solutions in healthcare, agriculture, and other fields—from bench-top R&D to the commercial scale. This capability unlocks new frontiers for scientific and industrial applications.
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Julie Ming Liang
Julie Ming Liang is co-founder and chief scientific officer at Opera Bioscience. Liang holds a Ph.D. in biological sciences from Northwestern University, where she was instrumental in developing Opera Bioscience’s core technology. With over 10 years of experience, Liang is dedicated to creating and optimizing sustainable and environmentally friendly biotechnologies. Before Liang’s role at Opera Bioscience, she was a strain engineer at Amyris, developing yeast strains capable of fermenting sugar into renewable fuels.
TECHNOLOGY
Critical Need
Novel recombinant protein designs promise new life-saving drugs, sustainable consumer products, and environmentally friendly alternative materials. However, the behavior of these protein designs does not always align with initial predictions. To assess their functionality, scientists use time-consuming and expensive physical production and testing methods. The purification and recovery stages associated with traditional protein production significantly contribute to the overall cost, accounting for 50 to 80 percent of expenses. These steps can also more than double production timelines and present challenges in scalability. Optimizing protein production processes is paramount to overcoming these obstacles, enabling rapid and cost-effective production, and ultimately expediting the introduction of new products and drugs.
Technology Vision
Opera Bioscience offers high-purity recombinant proteins at affordable prices, while also minimizing the development and manufacturing timelines for biologically-derived products. By harnessing a microbial system, Opera Bioscience has devised a methodology that ensures the creation of high-purity proteins right from the outset. This approach obviates the need for costly downstream processing steps, capitalizing instead on highly efficient continuous fermentation processes. The outcome is a protein manufacturing solution that is both cost-effective and scalable while maintaining environmental hygiene. This allows customers to expedite the market launch of their consumer products and therapeutics while keeping production costs minimal.
Potential for Impact
The emergence of novel protein designs promises to revolutionize various industries by offering transformative drugs, sustainable food options, and innovative materials. However, protein production at required purity levels has been hampered by prohibitive costs. The economics surrounding protein production have thus far proved unfavorable. Opera Bioscience aims to address this issue by introducing a scalable platform for the large-scale manufacturing of high-purity recombinant proteins. This breakthrough can potentially make advancements economically viable, unlocking the promised benefits of the bioeconomy across industries.
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