It is one of the most important enzymes in medical diagnostics: Horseradish peroxidase is used for many medical products—it is often used when a color change of a test strip is to detect the presence of antibodies or other proteins.

This article summarizes a paper (I think it is actually a thesis) in which they create a scalable way to manufacture horseradish peridoxase using E. coli.

I actually don’t have first-hand experience using horseradish peridoxase, but it is used pretty ubiquitously in standard ELISA diagnostic assays as well as in Western Blots. This process can help alleviate current and future supply shortages.

Just as an aside, the cover image of a row of four bioreactors brings back a flood of memories of grad school for me.

doi: https://doi.org/10.34726/hss.2022.102141