Fed-batch pre-industrial production and purification of a consensus tetratricopeptide repeat (CTPR) scaffold as container for Fluorescent Proteins (FPs)

White light-emitting diodes (WLEDs) are big news in the field of lighting, however, current production processes are still very expensive or based on unsustainable inorganic metals such as inorganic phosphorus.The EU-funded ARTIBLED project aims to produce low-cost and high-efficiency Bio-hybrid light-emitting diodes (Bio-HLEDs). This can be achieved through the use of using artificially synthesized fluorescent proteins linked in biological scaffolds used like the packaging to obtain LED applications containing a biogenic phosphor.This study aims to optimize the protein scaffold CTPR10 production process to obtain a high number of scaffolds with a good purity level for Bio-HLEDs construction. Different fed-batch fermentation procedures were investigated and it was possible to produce more than two times of biomass and intracellular proteins, compared to a conventional fed-batch strategy.The improvement in production leads both to the reduction of costs related to the amount of IPTG used and to the isolation of a consistent amount of CTPR10 through the use of rapid and highly efficient purification techniques. The realization of this project represents a very important significant milestone for Europe which will be at the forefront of innovation in the lighting sector.