‘Comparative genomics of Alexander Fleming’s original Penicillium isolate (IMI 15378) reveals sequence divergence of penicillin synthesis genes’ by Ayush Pathak, Reuben W. Nowell, Christopher G. Wilson, Matthew J. Ryan and Timothy G. Barraclough is published in Scientific Reports.

Currently, the company operates 18 presses up to 200 tons. Part of the newly installed clean room is spoken for with a new blood filtration device program, in which Johnson Precision will be the distributor for the product after it is returned from the sterilization house, rather than having the products shipped from the sterilization company, Zygulski explained.

Randy Pell, formerly owner of Pell Design, recently spent 17 years with Mack Molding. Pell holds two industry patents, and has spent his career involved in part and mold design, and procurement of tooling for new and existing customers. Brian Fischer will be responsible for all program launches, oversee the sustainable growth of selected major key accounts, and comes to Johnson Precision after nine years with Nypro Inc. Fischer holds a BS Degree in Plastics Engineering from U Mass-Lowell.

Until she retired in September 2021, Clare Goldsberry reported on the plastics industry for more than 30 years. In addition to the 10,000+ articles she has written, by her own estimation, she is the author of several books, including The Business of Injection Molding: How to succeed as a custom molder and Purchasing Injection Molds: A buyers guide. Goldsberry is a member of the Plastics Pioneers Association. She reflected on her long career in "Time to Say Good-Bye."

However, the genes coding for penicillin-producing enzymes differed between the strains isolated in the UK and US. The researchers say this shows that wild Penicillium in the UK and US evolved naturally to produce slightly different versions of these enzymes.

In today's globally competitive environment, people make the difference, explained Scott Zygulski, VP of sales and marketing, in an interview with PlasticsToday. "We can all buy the same equipment but at the end of the day it's about the people running the business. We've made a concerted effort to hire experienced people with expertise in this industry."

Alexander Fleming famously discovered the first antibiotic, penicillin, in 1928 while working at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, which is now part of Imperial College London. The antibiotic was produced by a mould in the genus Penicillium that accidentally started growing in a Petri dish.

Zygulski added that while Johnson Precision does not build its own molds, the company operates a fully capable mold shop for repair, maintenance and ECOs of the molds it runs.

Researchers have sequenced the genome of Alexander Fleming’s penicillin mould for the first time and compared it to later versions.

Johnson Precision has seen substantial growth - 17% over the last fiscal year - building on the company's existing customer base consisting of the top 10 medical OEMs. "We've done a good job of getting new business, so we've had to explore building tools domestically."

"We were sourcing over 90% of our tools in Asia with joint venture partners, 85% of those being medical and device related," Zygulski said. "However, with the new hires we will certainly look to their relationships from a domestic standpoint to build tools."

The researchers looked in particular at two kinds of genes: those encoding the enzymes that the fungus uses to produce penicillin; and those that regulate the enzymes, for example by controlling how many enzymes are made.

"We're making a substantial move toward using product families in our operations and with the acquisition of our new Arburg injection molding machines, we have taken a significant step towards streamlining our processes even further," said Jason Stein, manufacturing manager at Johnson Precision. "Now, we're looking at reduced set-up times and a stricter approach to process control, which will serve to help us continue our industry leadership through the products and services that we offer."

It takes continued upgrading of both equipment and talent to be a successful mold manufacturer and molder in today's global marketplace. Johnson Precision Inc., a global manufacturer of thermoplastic injection molded components and assemblies to the medical device marketplace, announced its acquisition of three new, state-of-the-art Arburg injection molding machines. The company has also added three new members to its management team.

"The tool making industry has been slowly aging and disappearing over the last 10-15 years, as a result of off-shoring," said Michelle Mountain, director of human resources for the company. "The technical skills required are still being taught in a few schools, such as the Nashua Technology Center, specifically in their Precision Machining Program, and we were fortunate enough to be able to build a strong partnership through this internship program."

The team also used the new genome to compare Fleming’s mould with two strains of Penicillium from the US that are used to produce the antibiotic on an industrial scale. The results, published today in Scientific Reports, reveal that the UK and US strains use slightly different methods to produce penicillin, potentially suggesting new routes for industrial production.

Although Fleming’s mould is famous as the original source of penicillin, industrial production quickly moved to using fungus from mouldy cantaloupes in the US. From these natural beginnings, the Penicillium samples were artificially selected for strains that produce higher volumes of penicillin.

Moulds like Penicillium produce antibiotics to fight off microbes, and are in a constant arms race as microbes evolve ways to evade these defences. The UK and US strains likely evolved differently to adapt to their local microbes.

Johnson Precision's commitment to excellence by its management team "makes a big difference," Zygulski said. "We have a lot of exciting programs in the pipeline."

Planning for the future of the company also requires thinking about apprentices and their growing role in the company's success. Johnson Precision also announced that it has acquired a machining intern from Nashua (NH) Technology Center through the end of 2014. Michael Small, a precision machining student at the Nashua Technology Center, will learn and observe the fundamentals of tool making as well as the construction and repair of injection molds.

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“But it is possible that industrial methods might have missed some solutions for optimising penicillin design, and we can learn from natural responses to the evolution of antibiotic resistance.”

First author Ayush Pathak, from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial, said: “Our research could help inspire novel solutions to combatting antibiotic resistance. Industrial production of penicillin concentrated on the amount produced, and the steps used to artificially improve production led to changes in numbers of genes.

Microbial evolution is a big problem today, as many are becoming resistant to our antibiotics. Although the researchers say they don’t yet know the consequences of the different enzyme sequences in the UK and US strains for the eventual antibiotic, they say it does raise the intriguing prospect of new ways to modify penicillin production.

In both the UK and US strains, the regulatory genes had the same genetic code, but the US strains had more copies of the regulatory genes, helping those strains produce more penicillin.

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Johnson Precision's Owner Jim Umland commented, "Being able to welcome three distinguished industry leaders to our growing team is a pleasure for our company and a gateway to prolific future growth."

The team re-grew Fleming’s original Penicillium from a frozen sample kept at the culture collection at CABI and extracted the DNA for sequencing. The resulting genome was compared to the previously published genomes of two industrial strains of Penicillium used later in the US.

The new equipment replaces the company's existing injection molding equipment, and represents a significant technical upgrade from the previous machinery the company used, and highlights Johnson Precision's continued drive toward manufacturing excellence. The three Arburg machines consist of two 55-ton models and a 28-ton model, and will be housed in Johnson Precision's 5,000-sq-ft, ISO Class 8 cleanroom. Each machine features innovative touch screen controls and advanced calibration options, while the 28-ton machine will give the company the capability to mold components on a micro-scale.

Stefan Rasch, a 28-year veteran of the injection molding industry, has help positions with Mack Molding, GE Plastics and most recently, Sinicon. Rasch holds a BA degree in Biology and BS degree in Medical Terminology from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, MA.

It takes continued upgrading of both equipment and talent to be a successful mold manufacturer and molder in today's global marketplace. Johnson Precision Inc., a global manufacturer of thermoplastic injection molded components and assemblies to the medical device marketplace, announced its acquisition of three new, state-of-the-art Arburg injection molding machines. The company has also added three new members to its management team.

Now, researchers from Imperial College London, CABI and the University of Oxford have sequenced the genome of Fleming’s original Penicillium strain using samples that were frozen alive more than fifty years ago.

Lead researcher Professor Timothy Barraclough, from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial and the Department of Zoology at Oxford, said: “We originally set out to use Alexander Fleming’s fungus for some different experiments, but we realised, to our surprise, that no-one had sequenced the genome of this original Penicillium, despite its historical significance to the field.”

In a separate announcement, Johnson Precision welcomed three industry veterans to its upper management staff. Stefan Rasch will act as the company's new director of engineering; Randy Pell was hired as senior design engineer, and Brian Fischer as senior program manager.