Cape Biologix Technologies

Cape Biologix is a world leader in the large-scale development and manufacture of a wide variety of recombinant proteins using plant transient expression technology. Our vision is to use advances in plant-biotechnology to make a meaningful contribution to improving the health and wellbeing of humans and animals in a sustainable and ethical way. Our offerings include Product Sales, Custom Protein Development, and Contract Manufacture Services from our ISO 13485 certified facility based in Cape Town, South Africa. Our product catalogue of recombinant proteins currently includes monoclonal antibodies, proteins, and infectious disease antigens for research and diagnostics applications.

We use Nicotiana benthamiana plants as single use, biodegradable bioreactors though a process referred to as agrobacterium-mediated transient plant expression. Agrobacterium tumefaciens is naturally occurring soil bacteria that infect plants resulting in the development of tumorous growths called calluses. The bacteria does this by transferring certain oncogenes into the plant cell dna. We take advantage of this natural occurring phenomenon by replacing the bacterial oncogene with the gene of the antibody we wish to express. The bacteria is then cloned and the plants submerged in a bacterial suspension liquid and placed under a vacuum. During this process the bacteria enter the plants via their stomata and nature takes its course. The bacteria transfer the gene of interest into the plant cell dna and the plants express the antibody of interest. Leaves are harvested between 5 – 7 days after agroinfiltration and purified using conventional techniques. Original sequences are obtained from public domain sources and no animal immunization is done in our process.