Toward Genome Scale Modeling of Escherichia coli Cell-Free Protein Synthesis

摘要

Cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) is a promising approach for point of care manufacturing of therapeutic proteins [1]. Cell-free systems offer many advantages for protein production compared with traditional in vivo processes. Central amongst these, is direct access to metabolites and the biosynthetic machinery without the interference of a cell wall, or complications associated with cell growth. This allows us to interrogate the chemical environment while the biosynthetic machinery is operating, potentially at a fine time resolution. Today, cell-free systems are used in a variety of applications ranging from therapeutic protein production, and vaccine development to synthetic biology [1]. However, if CFPS is to become a mainstream technology for point of care manufacturing, we must first understand the performance limits of these systems. One tool to address this question is mathematical modeling.