TÜSEB Grant to GTU Academic for Rare Disease Treatment

September 26, 2022

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Barış Binay from GTU's Department of Bioengineering and his team are to contribute to the treatment for a rare disease using TÜSEB (Health Institutes of Türkiye) project grant. 

The project titled "High Efficiency Production of Recombinant Human β-Glucocerebrosidase Enzyme in Pichia Pastoris Protein Expression System  for Gaucher Disease's Enzyme Replacement Therapy", coordinated by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Barış Binay from the Department of Bioengineering and for which Assoc. Prof. Dr. Müge İşleten-Hoşoğlu from the Institute of Biotechnology at GTU, Asst. Prof. Dr. Özlem Yalçın-Çapan from the Medical Biology Program under the Faculty of Medicine at Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University and Prof. Dr. Gizem Dönmez-Yalçın from the Department of Basic Medical Sciences under the Faculty of Medicine at Aydın Adnan Menderes University are researchers, has been entitled for support under TÜSEB's Group B R&D project.  

The project aims to produce the β-glucocerebrosidase enzyme used in the treatment for Gaucher Disease, which is one of the significant rare diseases that draws the attention of governments in recent years. Gaucher Disease is the most common lysosomal storage disease resulting in harmful lipid glucocerebroside accumulation in the spleen, liver, lungs, bone marrow, and the brain due to the lack of β-glucocerebrosidase enzyme. There is an effective enzyme replacement therapy for Gaucher Disease patients; however, the production of β-glucocerebrosidase is expensive. Most patients cannot afford the treatment because of the costs incurred and health insurance carriers are reluctant to undertake the lifelong treatment. The proposed project focuses on the high efficiency (high quantity, low cost) recombinant production of the β-glucocerebrosidase enzyme through the use of yeast protein expression system.