Protein Production UK (PPUK) is being developed as a programme for protein engineering and production as part of the Structural Biology theme of the Rosalind Franklin Institute (RFI). PPUK aims to develop new and innovative methods and to work in partnership with academic groups and industry to enable uptake of the technology.
PPUK has an established pipeline for protein production based on the technology developed by the Oxford Protein Production Facility (OPPF), involving construction of multi-purpose vectors (e.g. for producing complexes, and membrane proteins), high-throughput expression screening in different cell hosts (microbial, insect and mammalian cells) combined with scale-up to multi-litre culture volumes and downstream processing. New technology platforms that are under development include production of single-domain antibodies (nanobodies) for the stabilisation of membrane proteins and macro-molecular complexes for analysis by cryo-EM.
We are using nanobody technology to identify binding agents with diagnostic and therapeutic potential for the treatment of respiratory viral diseases.