Officials at TAP Biosystems say they have agreed to collaborate with Life Technologies on the development a cost-efficient, high-throughput protein expression platform. The partnership will combine Life Technologies’ Expi293™ expression system for transient transfection with TAP’s ambr™ advanced micro bioreactor to enable automated high-throughput small-scale protein expression. According to a TAP spokesperson, the increased culture consistency and productivity provided by both the Expi293 and ambr systems will offer a novel platform for both small volume protein expression screens and optimization of transient expression conditions.

The ambr system uses scale-down bioreactors where culture conditions such as pH and DO are controlled in 48 micro bioreactors (10–15 mL) in parallel. The goal is to ensure that protein quality produced by the Expi293F cells cultured in ambr is consistent. Applications for the protein generated include vector optimization studies, as well as high-throughput, small-scale functional protein production and protein purification studies.

“Currently with Expi293F cells we’re seeing yields of up to 1 g/L, exceeding the expression levels of even bacterial systems,” explained Sanjay Vasu, staff scientist at Life Technologies. “The benefit of this is that scientists will have sufficient protein for analytical studies. And since this is a mammalian system, mammalian proteins are more likely to be properly folded and biologically active.”

“Since the Expi293 Expression System can produce milligram to gram quantities of protein with consistent quality, it is ideal to amplify this with the consistent automation and proven scalability of the ambr system,” added Barney Zoro, Ph.D., ambr product manager at TAP Biosystems. “This will enable scientists to rapidly automate the generation of enough protein for analysis from 48 parallel cultures, thus saving laboratory staff time, increasing laboratory capacity, and significantly reducing the cost per gram of protein produced.”

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