NORWICH, UK – 13 April 2021: HotHouse BioEngineering (HHBE), which was founded on a body of work from the laboratory of Professor Anne Osbourn FRS OBE of the John Innes Centre, and Leaf Expression Systems (Leaf), a contract development and manufacturing organisation specialising in plant-based expression and production of proteins, today announced a non-exclusive agreement granting HHBE use of Leaf’s expression technology, Hypertrans® for research and development.

HHBE has the ability to rapidly identify and isolate entire biosynthetic pathways from members of the plant kingdom and reconstruct those pathways in other plants in a rapid and scaleable manner. By using Leaf’s Hypertans® technology HHBE aims to produce non-protein secondary metabolites through the assembly and manipulation of multi-enzyme biosynthetic pathways.

Martin Stocks, CEO of HotHouse BioEngineering, said: "Access to the Hypertrans® system is a major plus for HHBE. The power and flexibility of the system will enable us to rapidly prototype new biosynthetic pathways, and then scale production without having to significantly re-engineer our constructs. We are very pleased to have concluded this licence with Leaf."

Simon Saxby, CEO, Leaf Expression Systems, commented: “We are delighted to have signed a licensing agreement with HHBE. The agreement further demonstrates the capabilities of Hypertrans® and its ability to help enable commercial applications for use within the life sciences industry.”

About Leaf Expression Systems
Leaf Expression Systems is a contract development and manufacturing business specialising in plant-based expression and production of proteins, vaccines and complex natural products for research and commercial applications. It uses Hypertrans®, the proprietary transient expression technology, which was originally developed by Professor George Lomonossoff of the John Innes Centre.

The Hypertrans® system allows for the rapid simultaneous production of multiple gene products in a controlled and coordinated manner within the tissues of plants. Using gene synthesis and modular vectors, new products such as vaccines, antibodies or enzymes can be produced at speed and on a large scale, so it is well suited to be able to rapidly respond to emergencies like pandemics.

www.leafexpressionsystems.com
Twitter: @leaf_expression
LinkedIn: @Leaf Expression Systems

About HotHouse BioEngineering
HotHouse BioEngineering Ltd. is a new synthetic biology company, aiming to exploit the biochemical diversity of the plant kingdom to deliver new drugs and other high-value compounds. A large proportion of drugs in current use are plant-sourced natural products or are derived from plant-sourced intermediates. However, not all compounds can be accessed in a cost-effective or sustainable manner from their wild source, nor can they be synthesised chemically. HHBE is creating routes to access such compounds in a scaleable and sustainable manner.