Improved Green Flourescent Protein for Protein Manufacturing

Cleavage Resistant Photoluminescent Proteins and Applications Thereof

When manufacturing proteins from bacteria that has DNA that has been engineered to produce a target protein, it is necessary to also engineer a tag onto the end of the target protein strand.  The tag allows the target protein to be distinguished from the other non-target proteins when the bacteria are broken and the resulting proteins are separated.  The tag that is used is Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP), and the target protein will always have the tag attached to it.  To identify the target protein, a UV light is shown on the proteins and the one which glows green is the target.However, the cost to purify the target protein or peptide by removing the tag is a significant part of the cost of production.  The method of separating the tag from the target utilizes protease, which is fairly expensive.  Now there is a newly engineered form of GFP that is easy to separate from the target protein, allowing a large decrease in the cost to purify the target protein or peptide.  The new GFP is patent pending and is available for licensing.

Mar 2, 2016

USA