A cell-free protein expression system is a method of synthesizing proteins in vitro, using the necessary components extracted from cells rather than relying on living cells. By providing a DNA template, ribosomes, amino acids, enzymes, and other intracellular components in a test tube, scientists can directly produce proteins in an artificial environment.

Key Features of a Cell-Free Protein Expression System:

1)     Rapid Expression: Compared to traditional cell-based expression systems (such as bacteria, yeast, or mammalian cells), cell-free systems can produce proteins within hours, eliminating the time needed for cell growth and culture.

2)     No Living Cell Constraints: Since it doesn’t depend on living cells, cell-free systems avoid issues related to cell growth and survival, allowing for the expression of proteins that might be toxic or difficult to express in cells.

3)     Controllability: Researchers can precisely control the reaction environment (e.g., temperature, ion concentration, additives), optimizing protein yield and quality.

4)     Suitable for High-Throughput Screening: Due to its simplicity and lack of need for cell culture, the cell-free system is particularly well-suited for high-throughput protein production and screening.

5)     Simplified Purification: Proteins produced in a cell-free system are in a reaction mixture with fewer impurities, simplifying subsequent protein purification steps.

Applications:

 

Cell-free protein expression systems are widely used in structural biology, protein engineering, drug screening, vaccine development, and other fields, especially when there is a need for rapid production of large amounts of protein samples.



GenCefe provide one-stop solutions from codon optimization, gene synthesis, to protein expression and purification. In addition to four conventional expression systems of bacterial, yeast, insect cell, and mammalian cell, we have also developed a patented cell free expression technology, which is suitable for the production of difficult proteins such as toxic proteins and membrane proteins.