NIST suggests new purity test for biotech products
Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - 10:00
in Biology & Nature
To avoid contaminating their experiments, biomedical researchers want to know that the scientific products they buy are pure. But how pure does something need to be to really be pure? Using a new test, scientists at the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR) have found traces of plant enzymes in batches of supposedly pure, commercially available human blood protein genetically manufactured from plant seeds. Because they are active agents that promote biochemical reactions, enzyme contamination at even low levels could have an outsized effect on measurement reproducibility, and quality control in biomanufacturing.