Agreement will provide biomaterials for the development of protein biochips and overcome barriers to the production of thousands of functional proteins in research quantities
NextGen Sciences and Protagen have announced that the capabilities of NextGen Sciences's Expressionfactory are to be combined with Protagen's extensive gene library resource, Uniclone, consisting of over 11,000 unique human genes.
This initiative will overcome existing barriers to the robust production of thousands of functional proteins in research-scale quantities.
For Protagen and NextGen Sciences, this agreement will provide the biomaterials urgently required for the development of the content for the companies' protein biochips.
The newly launched Expressionfactory automates protein expression on a single platform from 'gene-to-protein'. Following the activation of a gene, gene fragment or domain using Invitrogen's Gateway technology, the advanced system expresses each gene in parallel, in a system of related expression vectors called Trinity.
Expressionfactory also grows each of the newly created cell lines in parallel, before purifying all of the different versions of each protein.
This is achieved automatically and without user supervision or intervention.
The Expressionfactory allows a matrix approach for the cloning and expression of any gene, increasing the chances of successfully isolating useful protein.
NextGen Sciences originally designed Expressionfactory to meet its need for different proteins for the development of breast cancer biochips, although the demand to produce higher numbers of proteins for other areas of research is currently being felt across the biopharmaceutical industry.
Following completion of the fully automated Expressionfactory, the protein production bottleneck for NextGen Sciences shifted towards the need to access gene libraries.
"When NextGen Sciences was founded, the need for content for protein biochips was a clear issue.
"In the early days of the protein biochip development, most of the attention was focused on the surface of the biochip and how to bind proteins.
"We very quickly solved this issue and then turned to the difficulty of how to apply a universal strategy to the expression of many hundreds of proteins at a low cost per protein.
"What became obvious was that a matrix approach was essential, rather than trying several strategies one-after-the-other in an iterative process.
"Automation was an immediate requirement to lower costs and to allow each biomaterial to be tracked while recording the massive volume of information that is generated.
"Having solved these issues, the next challenge was one of sourcing libraries of ORFs in the correct reading frame and under financial terms that were acceptable.
"Our new partnership with Protagen has achieved this long held objective and we are excited to have joined forces with a company with whom we have such a closely shared vision" stated Kevin Auton, CEO, NextGen Sciences.
Protagen has identified the significance of the Expressionfactory's profound capabilities and, as part of the agreement, will use the system to expand its protein research service business, by offering its clients the ability to completely outsource the production and analysis of any given protein.
For the first time, researchers will be able to purchase the proteins they require, fit for their purpose, in minimal time, from an off-the-shelf list of genes available from Protagen.
The level of flexibility and efficiency provided by the Expressionfactory will make this fee-for-service protein expression capability totally unique, and the initiative is already attracting much interest from the biopharmaceutical industry.
"Protagen has always held a strong interest in the high throughput production of proteins from gene libraries and has successfully demonstrated the use of arrays of human proteins (called reverse phase arrays) in detecting conditions such as autoimmune diseases and rheumatoid arthritis.
"We intend to use the expressionfactory to offer our research partners the ability to produce virtually any protein in research amounts within a few weeks.
"As we already have a qualified gene library, we do not have to stop and clone each gene before we begin expression.
"This gives us a valuable head start.
"Adding the Expressionfactory means that we can produce proteins 24/7 which shortens the process time and keeps our costs low.
"Equally, we are pleased that NextGen Sciences has licensed our Uniclone library and this is a business model that we will be applying as we serve other for-profit research centres in which gene expression is a core capability" explained Christoph Huls, CEO, Protagen.
