April's Newsletter

gabriele380
May 7
4 min read

The Growth Factor | Newsletter | April 2025

April Updates

We were in high demand this month, with our team attending a range of exciting networking events - each celebrating innovation and entrepreneurship across South Africa’s biotech and startup landscape:

The Annual CEO Function, hosted by the Innovus Technology Transfer Office at Stellenbosch University, brought together founders from Stellenbosch University’s startup ecosystem to celebrate the achievements and milestones of each spinout.
The launch of OPUS in Cape Town, an initiative aimed at fostering community among South African entrepreneurs.
OneBio Innovation Centre’s Biotech and Beers, which gathered founders, scientists, investors, students, and partners to share insights, ideas, and a common vision for the future of biotech in Africa.
MFM Radio, where our founders were featured on the show’s new hour-long business segment, Workstation Waves.

Left: The Immobazyme executives at mfm radio station for their interview on Workstation Waves. Right: Dominic Nicholas at the Opus South African launch event in Cape Town.

Prolifer-8™ Moves Closer to Market.

Prolifer-8™, Immobazyme's fetal bovine serum (FBS) alternative, is steadily progressing toward launch. Led by our Head of Quality Control, Darrian Lourens, recent tests have shown promising results compared to commercial FBS.

Morphology of HIH-3T3 Cells: FBS VS Prolifer-8™

Figure 1: Morphology of NIH-3T3 cells cultured in DMEM with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS). Cells were maintained at 37 °C with 5% CO₂ and imaged under standard bright-field microscopy at 100× magnification. The NIH-3T3 fibroblasts display characteristic spindle-shaped morphology and adhere uniformly, indicating healthy proliferation under standard culture conditions.

Figure 2: Morphology of NIH-3T3 cells cultured in DMEM with Prolifer-8™, at passage 5. Cells were maintained at 37 °C with 5% CO₂ and imaged using bright-field microscopy at 100× magnification. At the fifth passage, NIH-3T3 fibroblasts retained their characteristic elongated morphology and substrate adherence, demonstrating that Prolifer-8™ effectively supports cell maintenance and proliferation in the absence of fetal bovine serum.

Why Replace FBS?

Fetal bovine serum (FBS) has been a staple in cell culture since the 1950s. Made up of key components, like albumin, hormones, vitamins, trace elements, and growth factors, FBS supports the growth and maintenance of a variety of cell types in vitro.

However, using FBS comes with several major challenges:

Cost - FBS is one of the most expensive components of cell culture media, and its price tends to fluctuate unpredictably.
Supply issues - Because it’s a by-product of the meat industry, its availability is influenced by everything from environmental conditions to economic shifts and disease outbreaks.
Inconsistency - FBS contains over 1,800 proteins and more than 4,000 metabolites, and these can vary significantly from batch to batch. This variability can lead to inconsistent results in experiments, making it harder to reproduce findings.
Ethical concerns - The way FBS is collected raises concerns around sustainability and animal welfare, prompting many researchers to seek more humane and responsible alternatives.

Why Prolifer-8™?

With Prolifer-8™, we set out to bridge the gap between traditional FBS and fully chemically defined media - offering a solution that’s consistent, affordable, and easy to use.

Prolifer-8™ is significantly more affordable than FBS, making large-scale research and production more accessible.
It's chemically defined so no more batch-to-batch variability.
Batches will be freeze dried for longer shelf life and easier storage.
It's animal-free, providing an ethical alternative that aligns with modern sustainability and animal welfare standards.

Protein of the Month: Dextranase

Dextranase is an enzyme that breaks down dextran, a sticky sugar-based compound produced by microbes like Leuconostoc and Streptococcus. While these microbes occur naturally, the dextran they produce can be a real nuisance, especially in:

Sugar processing – it thickens and clogs up equipment
Food manufacturing – it affects texture and stability
Dental plaque – it contributes to biofilm formation

By breaking dextran, dextranase helps reduce viscosity, improve flow, and boost overall product quality.

We produce our recombinant dextranase in Pichia pastoris and purify it using IMAC (immobilised metal affinity chromatography), ensuring it’s both high in purity and potent enough for industrial applications.

Effect of Dextranse on the hydrolysation Dextran T500 polysaccharide gum

Figure 3: Effect of Dextranse (LOT: DexD-20250123) on the hydrolysation Dextran T500 polysaccharide gum

Figure 3: The top chromatogram portrays LCMS data of an untreated Dextran T500 polysaccharide sample, showing the absence of simple saccharide peaks. The lower chromatogram portrays LCMS data of a Dextran T500 polysaccharide sample treated with enzyme at 50°C for 10 min. These graphs illustrate the hydrolytic effect of Immobazyme’s Dextranase on Dextran T500, resulting in the breakdown of this complex polysaccharide into simple mono-, di-, and trisaccharides.

Buy Dextranase

People of the Pipeline: Takudzwa Jeranyama

Meet Takudzwa Jeranyama, one of our core research scientists.

From high-pressure homogenisation and SDS-PAGE to protein expression analysis and cosmetic formulation development, TK plays a central role in both R&D and quality assurance across our product pipeline.

You’ll usually find him in the lab, pipette in hand, quietly driving the science behind some of our most exciting projects (or chatting to Bongumusa Mthethwa about football or anime).

Let’s Collaborate

We're always on the lookout for collaborators and partners. Whether you're a startup, corporate, or research team - if our work resonates with yours, we’d love to talk.

Reach out to us directly at info@immobazyme.com.