Cell-free Expression Systems

Cell-free protein expression, also termed in vitro translation, facilitates the production of a given target protein by performing the translational machinery in cell lysates rather than within cultured cells. Creative Biolabs provides various cell-free expression systems to express and manufacture antibodies rapidly.

In cell-free expression systems, the genetic template (mRNA or DNA) encoding the target protein and all components needed for transcriptional and translational molecular machinery (e.g. ribosomes, tRNAs, enzymes, cofactors, amino acids) are provided in solution. Generally, such solutions are obtained through making a cell lysate from the desired cell type.

We provide several different types and species of cell lysate for cell-free antibody expression, both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, including E. coli, wheat germ, rabbit reticulocytes, insect cell (such as SF9 or SF21) and human cell lysates. Extracts made from these systems contain all the necessary transcriptional and translational macromolecules for efficient protein synthesis.

Although cell-free antibody expression system is not practical for large-scale recombinant protein production, it is easier to direct monitoring the synthesis process and add additives to meet customers' needs. As a complement to the cell-dependent system, cell-free protein expression system offers several advantages. For example, as cell-free expression avoiding time-consuming gene cloning steps required for in vivo protein synthesis, they are suitable for high-throughput screening of proteins for structural or functional studies. Post-translational modifications, amino acids modified expression, and proper protein folding can be complete with cell-free expression systems.

Several factors need to be considered when you select a cell-free protein expression system. The choice of the system is dependent on the origin of the template (mRNA or DNA), protein yield, post-translational modification, etc. We offer both mRNA-based translation systems and DNA-based transcription/translation systems from prokaryotic and eukaryotic sources.

The comparison of different cell-free expression systems is shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Comparison of different cell-free expression systems

For more detailed information, please feel free to contact us or directly sent us an inquiry.

Reference

1. Stech M and Kubick S (2015) “Cell-Free Synthesis Meets Antibody Production: A Review” Antibodies 4: 12-33. doi: 10.3390/antib4010012.

For Research Use Only.