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Recombinant protein production by large-scale transient gene expression in mammalian cells: state of the art and future perspectives

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Abstract

The expansion of the biologics pipeline depends on the identification of candidate proteins for clinical trials. Speed is one of the critical issues, and the rapid production of high quality, research-grade material for preclinical studies by transient gene expression (TGE) is addressing this factor in an impressive way: following DNA transfection, the production phase for TGE is usually 2–10 days. Recombinant proteins (r-proteins) produced by TGE can therefore enter the drug development and screening process in a very short time––weeks. With “classical” approaches to protein expression from mammalian cells, it takes months to establish a productive host cell line. This article summarizes efforts in industry and academia to use TGE to produce tens to hundreds of milligrams of r-proteins for either fundamental research or preclinical studies.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Matthieu Stettler, Sarah Wuhlfard and Markus Hildinger for sharing unpublished results. This work was partly supported by the swiss KTI/CTI (Science to Market Fund). We thank A. Kühner AG for providing cell culture incubator shakers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Cellular Biotechnology, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Station 6, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Lucia Baldi, David L. Hacker, Myriam Adam & Florian M. Wurm

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  1. Lucia Baldi
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  2. David L. Hacker
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  4. Florian M. Wurm
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Correspondence to Lucia Baldi.

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Baldi, L., Hacker, D.L., Adam, M. et al. Recombinant protein production by large-scale transient gene expression in mammalian cells: state of the art and future perspectives. Biotechnol Lett 29, 677–684 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-006-9297-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-006-9297-y

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