Membrane crystallization of enzymes: a possible application in bio pharmaceutical industry

The increasing expansion of the utilization of enzyme crystals in biotechnological field has turned the interest of the scientific community toward the development of new methods and strategies for growing protein crystals with controlled shape, size, and size distribution, depending on the specific application. In this respect, membrane crystallization has been recognized, in the more recent years, as an effective tool for growing protein crystals with enhanced crystallization kinetics, both in static and in forced solution flow configuration. In this work, we present the membrane crystallization of Benzamidine-inhibited trypsin from bovine pancreas (BPT), with ammonium sulphate as precipitant agent. We observed that, by using the membrane crystallization technique, BPT crystals can be obtained in 24-48 h, in static configuration, and in 4-7 days, in a forced solution flow system, depending on the experimental conditions. Furthermore, the kinetics of BPT crystallization have been modulated, in order to control the morphological characteristics of the crystals produced, by an accurate selection of the operative parameters involved in the process.