Engineering cellular biology, minus the actual cell, is a growing area of interest in biotechnology and synthetic biology. It's known as cell-free protein synthesis, or CFPS, and it has potential to provide sustainable ways to make chemicals, medicines and biomaterials. Unfortunately, a long-standing gap in cell-free systems is the ability to manufacture glycosylated proteins - proteins with a carbohydrate attachment. Glycosylation is crucial for a wide range of important biological processes, and the ability to understand and control this mechanism is vital for disease treatment and prevention.
Matthew DeLisa, the William L. Lewis Professor of Engineering in the Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University, and Michael Jewett, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering at Northwestern University, have teamed up on a novel approach that bridges this gap. Their system, the first of its kind, capitalizes on the recent advances in CFPS while adding the crucial glycosylation component in a simplified, "one-pot" reaction. The protein of choice could then be freeze-dried and reactivated for point-of-use synthesis by simply adding water.
Read more:http://www.worldpharmanews.com/research/4481-bioengineers-create-pathway-to-personalized-medicine