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Research

Biological systems - including the simplest cells - exhibit a broad range of functions to thrive in their environment. Research in the Imperial College Centre for Synthetic Biology is focused on the possibility of engineering the underlying biochemical processes to solve many of the challenges facing society, from healthcare to sustainable energy. In particular, we model, analyse, design and build biological and biochemical systems in living cells and/or in cell extracts, both exploring and enhancing the engineering potential of biology.

As part of our research we develop novel methods to accelerate the celebrated Design-Build-Test-Learn synthetic biology cycle. As such research in the Centre for Synthetic Biology highly multi- and interdisciplinary covering computational modelling and machine learning approaches; automated platform development and genetic circuit engineering ; multi-cellular and multi-organismal interactions, including gene drive and genome engineering; metabolic engineering; in vitro/cell-free synthetic biology; engineered phages and directed evolution; and biomimetics, biomaterials and biological engineering.

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Aw and McKay and Shattock and Polizzi:2017:10.1186/s13568-017-0372-7,
author = {Aw and McKay and Shattock and Polizzi, KM},
doi = {10.1186/s13568-017-0372-7},
journal = {AMB Express},
title = {Expressing anti-HIV VRC01 antibody using the murine IgG1 secretion signal in Pichia pastoris},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13568-017-0372-7},
volume = {7},
year = {2017}
}

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TY - JOUR
AB - The use of the recombinant expression platform Pichia pastoris to produce pharmaceutically important proteins has been investigated over the past 30 years. Compared to mammalian cultures, expression in P. pastoris is cheaper and faster, potentially leading to decreased costs and process development times. Product yields depend on a number of factors including the secretion signal chosen for expression, which can influence the host cell response to recombinant protein production. VRC01, a broadly neutralising anti-HIV antibody, was expressed in P. pastoris, using the methanol inducible AOX1 promoter for both the heavy and light chains. Titre reached up to 3.05 μg mL-1 in small scale expression. VRC01 was expressed using both the α-mating factor signal peptide from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the murine IgG1 signal peptide. Surprisingly using the murine IgG1 signal peptide resulted in higher yield of antibody capable of binding gp140 antigen. Furthermore, we evaluated levels of secretory stress compared to the untransformed wild-type strain and show a reduced level of secretory stress in the murine IgG1 signal peptide strains versus those containing the α-MF signal peptide. As bottlenecks in the secretory pathway are often the limiting factor in protein secretion, reduced levels of secretory stress and the higher yield of functional antibody suggest the murine IgG1 signal peptide may lead to better protein folding and secretion. This work indicates the possibilities for utilising the murine IgG1 signal peptide for a range of antibodies, resulting in high yields and reduced cellular stress.
AU - Aw
AU - McKay
AU - Shattock
AU - Polizzi,KM
DO - 10.1186/s13568-017-0372-7
PY - 2017///
SN - 2191-0855
TI - Expressing anti-HIV VRC01 antibody using the murine IgG1 secretion signal in Pichia pastoris
T2 - AMB Express
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13568-017-0372-7
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/45699
VL - 7
ER -

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