A unique method to screen large-scale libraries for industrially useful bacterial strains was recently developed by Tokyo Tech researchers. The simple approach combines biosensors and microfluidics to quickly identify mutant strains that secrete large amounts of industrially useful proteins, opening the doors to more applications, like reasonably priced biopharmaceuticals. With modern genetic engineering tools, it is now possible to modify microorganisms so that their production of industrially useful proteins such as those used in biopharmaceuticals is enhanced. By introducing genetic modifications into these organisms, will enable them to be used as biological factories to produce large quantities of the desired protein. Bacteria with this enhanced ability can produce insulin, growth hormones, and enzymes. This approach of increasing microbial secretory protein expression has led to breakthroughs in medicine, industry, and agriculture. Nonetheless, the traditional method of genetically engineering bacterial strains for high protein production is extremely time consuming. This is because it relies on introducing genetic modifications in individual strains and evaluating the effectiveness of protein production.
By Tokyo Institute of Technology
Article can be accessed on: phys.org