Making proteins without DNA.

• Autores: Gary Stix
• Localización: Scientific American, ISSN 0036-8733, Vol. 290, Nº. 4, 2004, págs. 38-40
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The article traces the history of scientists experimenting with synthetic processes that produce genes. Emil Fischer experimented with making polypeptides-chains of at least three amino acids--during the opening years of the 20th century. In 1989 biochemist Stephen B. H. Kent, along with colleagues from the California Institute of Technology used a synthetic process to make the HIV protease--the enzyme needed to make the virus fully functional. In 1992 and 1994, Kent and his collaborators explained how to link already assembled chains of 30 or so amino acids to produce larger proteins that folded up and behaved the way the natural proteins do. In the middle of 1996 Kent left Scripps to devote all his time to a drug company he had founded, called Gryphon Sciences, that was trying to commercialize "synthetic micro proteins," which he predicted would rival recombinant proteins by the end of the decade. Gryphon underwent a recapitalization in 2000 that ultimately brought $31 million in new money. Friedhelm Blobel, a consultant recruited to evaluate the business, agreed to take over the chief executive slot that refocused had been occupied by Kent. The revamped Gryphon had added an infrastructure for drug development, which includes pharmacologists, analytical chemists and regulatory officers. Commercial recognition came in 2002, when Roche, the pharmaceutical giant, agreed to pay up to $155 million, along with royalties for exclusive rights to Gryphon's synthetic version of erythropoietin (EPO).