The protein that came out of the blue
C-phycocyanin (CPC) is a fascinating protein. I first heard about it while working as postdoc in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh. I attended an AIMDay (Academic Industry Meeting Day) hosted by Edinburgh Innovations where Rocky Kindt, now the CTO at ScotBio, presented three CPC-related challenges that ScotBio faced. I’ll admit that part of my initial zeal to work with CPC was that it is a biophysicist’s dream – a protein that can report on itself via its own colour! Studying whether a protein is still functional is not always that easy, but when an important part of its function is “being blue” … well … it kind of feels like cheating! More importantly, there is huge potential in a natural blue protein-pigment complex that is “Generally Recognized as Safe” (that’s an FDA designation) for incorporation into foods, drinks, personal care products, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and more. And that’s not even beginning to consider the applications that could take advantage of CPC’s fluorescent (it glows PINK in UV light!) and antioxidant properties.
At the time this opportunity arose, I felt like I had to work on this protein. It would almost be unfair to not let me work on it. Here was a company asking for help in characterizing and formulating an intriguing protein for food and drink (amongst other things), and I had spent the better part of the last decade characterizing and formulating proteins. I had also recently worked on several food-related studies, including projects on caramel, ice cream, gluten-free bread, and confectionary. Thinking back, I wasn’t the only one working on food there – maybe the university should rename it the School of Physics and Gastronomy.
A few months after the AIMDay, my colleague (Dr Marieke Schor) and I submitted a proposal to work with ScotBio via the Edinburgh Complex Fluids Partnership (ECFP) to study and enhance the stability of phycocyanin under different physical and chemical conditions. Thankfully, the proposal was accepted – this would have been a much shorter blog had it been rejected. I was delighted to discover ScotBio have an extremely progressive attitude towards research and were already collaborating with researchers at the University of Edinburgh in the Schools of Engineering and Biological Sciences. This “hub” of CPC research at Edinburgh was extremely helpful as we each had very different ways of thinking about the same challenges. At one meeting we had molecular biologists, biophysicists, chemical engineers, ScotBio scientists, and DC (ScotBio’s CEO) around the same table discussing the same topic but coming from wildly different perspectives. This interdisciplinary approach proved to be incredibly beneficial for me and I think the other guys got a lot out of it too. It was also great to see the passion at ScotBio work from the top down – DC was both extremely engaged and engaging. I was genuinely happy he showed so much excitement about the fact I had used a Raspberry Pi hooked up to a camera and a thermocouple to perform some of the experiments!
In terms of the project, we ended up achieving a huge amount given the short timescales involved and I think it would be fair to say that the project has made the concept of new CPC formulations coming from ScotBio a tangible prospect.
My story with ScotBio didn’t end there though. Even though I moved across the world to Los Angeles, ScotBio and I reconnected and I have been helping them to lay the foundations for future programs of formulation research as a part-time consultant biophysicist. I’ve recently found a permanent position for another great company in Los Angeles, so my time with ScotBio is coming to an end. I’m feeling blue that I won’t be around to see those innovations come to fruition, but absolutely in the pink that I’m leaving with ScotBio in such a strong position to grow in the years to come.