Cell Factories for the Human Secretome
The overall aim of this program is to produce, purify, and characterize the majority of all 3000 secreted proteins and selected parts of the single membrane spanning membrane proteins in humans using high-throughput bioproduction in CHO cells and to build up a resource of reagents for drug discovery and development.
To make a functional assessment of all human secreted proteins possible, a production pipeline has been developed where mammalian CHO cells are used as production host. Furthermore, to be able to use a generic purification pipeline, various C-terminal tags are genetically added to the target protein. This allows for similar, mild and effective one-step affinity purification by the use of affinity chromatography. Produced and purified proteins are quality assured by the analysis of identity, purity, and endotoxin content.
The acquired proteins are investigated by different means, including screening for activity in a number of different phenotypic assays.
This program is funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Astra Zeneca, and KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The program involves collaborations with Astra Zeneca and the Center for Biosustainability at the Danish Technical University (DTU) , Copenhagen, Denmark.