Bioverfahrenstechnik

XenoGlue: A Novel Mussel-Based Photoactivatable Bioglue for Biomedical Applications

Mussel glue is outstanding because it enables even under water extremely strong bonding. Till now, it was a problem to produce the glue in higher amounts and when produced it was sticking everywhere, that it was difficult to handle. In the partner working group of Prof. Nediljko Budisa at the Technical University Berlin, it was possible to produce the mussel glue heterologously in Escherichia coli in a scalable way. Also, it was possible to activate the sticky property only with light, when it is needed. The mussel glue is non-toxic, non-mutagenic and biocompatible thus it can be degraded by the human body after medical use. It will be used as sealant for medical treatment from the closing of injuries of hurt organs with strong blood flow like spleen and liver to the bonding of broken bones and implants.

The main problem is the low yield of the bioproduction of proteins containing non-canonical amino acids. For this, in the joint project XenoGlue, six scientific and industrial partners were brought together. The Bioprocess Engineering group of Prof. Peter Neubauer at the Technical University Berlin is setting up the scale up for the production of platform compounds in high yield to enable the use for various technical and medical applications on the base of mussel glue.

Funding organization

Contact Person

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Stefan Junne (stefan.junne@tu-berlin.de)

M.Sc. Simon Täuber (simon.taeuber@tu-berlin.de)

Coordination & Partners

Coordination: TUB

Partners: Biocat network, Chiracon, Dendropharm, Cellbricks, Elosystems GbR, Consultech

Status: 2018 - running