Thursday 24 September 2015

Antibody-making bacteria promise drug development


'Antibody-making bacteria promise drug development' - Typically, monoclonal antibodies are manufactured in animal cell lines, such as Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, with long development times that can drive up cost.

According to Phys Org: A team of Cornell chemical engineers and New England Biolabs scientists have devised a shortcut. They've done it using an engineered E. coli bacterium that carries machinery for human antibody production and can churn out complex proteins, including many of today's blockbuster, life-saving antibody drugs, in as little as a week.

A Nature Communications paper published Aug. 27 details the feat, led by co-senior author Matthew DeLisa, the William L. Lewis Professor of Engineering, and first author Michael-Paul Robinson, a graduate student in the field of chemical engineering. They worked with a team led by co-senior author Mehmet Berkmen, a staff scientist at New England Biolabs.

See also - "Efficient expression of full-length antibodies in the cytoplasm of engineered bacteria." Nature Communications 6, Article number: 8072 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms9072

Posted by Tim Sandle

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