Research Lab
Bioengineering of Therapeutic Proteins

48869
Lab Members
Research Interests
The main topics of research involve:
1. Design of bioprocesses to obtain human therapeutic proteins, targeting dementias and cancer;
2. Biofunctionalization of exopolysaccharides for the recovery of biomolecules;
3. Discover protein biomarkers to unveil the pathophysiology of human ocular diseases.
Research Highlights
How to stabilize recombinant membrane proteins for structural resolution purposes?
For the first time, we propose of a fed-batch profile to improve STEAP1 biosynthesis in minibioreactor Komagataella pastoris X-33 Mut+ methanol-induced cultures, by evaluating three glycerol feeding profiles - constant, exponential, gradient - during the pre-induction phase.
This platform was optimized using chemical chaperones for ensuring the structural stabilization and appropriate processing of STEAP1. The supplementation of culture medium with 6%(v/v) DMSO and 1M Proline onto a gradient glycerol/constant methanol feeding promotes STEAP1 biosynthesis and minimized protein aggregation. Deglycosylation assays showed that glycerol constant feed is associated with an N -glycosylated pattern of STEAP1. The biological activity of recombinant STEAP1 enhanced the proliferation of LNCaP and PC3 cancer cells, in comparison with non-tumoral cell.

Selected Publications
Pedro, AQ; Queiroz, JA; Passarinha, LA. 2019. Smoothing membrane protein structure determination by initial upstream stage improvements. APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY, 103, DOI: 10.1007/s00253-019-09873-1
Oppolzer, D; Santos, C; Gallardo, E; Passarinha, L; Barroso, M. 2019. Alcohol consumption assessment in a student population through combined hair analysis for ethyl glucuronide and fatty acid ethyl esters. FORENSIC SCIENCE INTERNATIONAL, 294, DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2018.10.028
Joana Mesquita; João Paulo Castro-de-Sousa; Sara Vaz-Pereira; Arminda Neves; Luís APassarinha; Cândida TTomaz. 2018. Evaluation of the growth factors VEGF-a and VEGF-B in the vitreous and serum of patients with macular and retinal vascular diseases. GROWTH FACTORS, 3, DOI: 10.1080/08977194.2018.1477140
Pedro, AQ; Gonçalves, AM; Queiroz, JA; Passarinha, LA. 2018. Purification of Histidine-Tagged Membrane-Bound Catechol-O-Methyltransferase from Detergent-Solubilized Pichia pastoris Membranes. CHROMATOGRAPHIA, 81(3), DOI: 10.1007/s10337-017-3453-5