Why Choose Synthelis?

Approximately, one-third of the total proteins from an organism are membrane proteins. Membrane proteins form supramolecular complexes and are involved in essential biological processes. The deregulation of their biological activity is one of the primary responses of the cell from bacterial or viral infections as well as in cancer or genetic diseases. Membrane proteins can be divided into two classes (b-barrel and helical bundle membrane proteins) and represent today, up to 50% of all pharmaceutical targets. However, their availability in natural membranes is too low to isolate them in sufficient amounts for functional and structural studies.

Recombinant membrane production can be considered a solution to this issue, but it is not, however, one that comes without its own drawbacks, as traditionally there are considerable bottlenecks associated with the production, purification and crystallisation of such proteins.

Methods for membrane protein production are often ill-defined due to the intrinsic biochemical properties of these proteins. Classical overexpression techniques can therefore prove problematic with regards to membrane protein production, and in particular with regards to yield rates that are obtainable through such methods.

Similarly, over expression methods for protein production also display some limiting features on several aspects. For example, membrane proteins can be overexpressed in inclusion bodies which require refolding steps after protein isolation or at the cytoplasmic membrane of the host organism resulting in cellular toxicity and reducing yields. Thus, functional and structural studies of membrane proteins require expression systems which are compatible with high membrane protein over expression yields.

Such expression systems can be found in the Synthelis membrane production process which enables the production of membrane proteins in both the quantities and the quality that are required for structural studies, functional studies, microarrays, therapeutic protein development, vaccine development and high-speed screening.

Membrane proteins in all of the following areas can be supplied:

Key benefits

The entire protein is produced using Synthelis's patented process