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This book offers information on the latest techniques used in manufacturing, characterization and screening of protein hydrolysates, and their applications in a wide variety of industries in biotechnology.

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Protein hydrolysates, otherwise commonly known as peptones or peptides, are used in a wide variety of products in fermentation and biotechnology industries. The term "peptone" was first introduced in 1880 by Nagelli for growing bacterial cultures. However, later it was discovered that peptones derived from the partial digestion of proteins would furnish organic nitrogen in readily available form. Ever since, p- tones, which are commonly known as protein hydrolysates, have been used not only for growth of microbial cultures, but also as nitrogen source in commercial fermen- tions using animal cells and recombinant microorganisms for the production of value added products such as therapeutic proteins, hormones, vaccines, etc. Today, the characterization, screening and manufacturing of protein hyd- lysates has become more sophisticated, with the introduction of reliable analytical instrumentation, high throughput screening techniques coupled with statistical design approaches, novel enzymes and efficient downstream processing equipment. This has enabled the introduction of custom-built products for specialized appli- tions in diverse fields of fermentation and biotechnology, such as the following. 1. Protein hydrolysates are used as much more than a simple nitrogen source. For example, the productivities of several therapeutic drugs made by animal cells and recombinant microorganisms have been markedly increased by use of p- tein hydrolysates. This is extremely important when capacities are limited. 2. Protein hydrolysates are employed in the manufacturing of vaccines by ferm- tation processes and also used as vaccine stabilizers.

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1.Applications of Protein Hydrolysates in Biotechnology; V.K. Pasupuleti.- 2.State of the art of Manufacturing of Protein Hydrolysates; V .K. Pasupuleti et al.- 3. Characterization and Screening of Protein Hydrolysates for Biopharmaceutical production; J. Wannlund et al.- 4. Benefits and Limitations of Protein Hydrolysates as components of serum free media for Animal Cell Culture; J.L. Alfonso et al.- 5. Oligopeptides as external molecular signals affecting growth and death in animal cells; F. Franek.- 6. Use of Protein Hydrolysates in Industrial Starter Culture Fermentations; M. Ummadi et al.- 7.Protein Hydrolysates from non-bovine and plant sources to replace tryptone in microbiological media; R. Meganathan et al.- 8. The use of Protein Hydrolysates For Weed Control; N.Christians et al.- 9. Physiological Importance and Mechanisms of Protein Hydrolysate Absorption; B.M.Zanghi et al.- 10.Protein Hydrolysates in Animal Nutrition; D. Lohry et al.- 11. Protein Hydrolysates and yeast extracts for companion animals; T. Nagodawithana and N.Trivedi.- 12 The development of novel recombinant human gelatins as replacements for animal derived gelatin hydrolysates in pharmaceutical applications; D.Olsen et al.

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