Tetrahymena thermophila as a Novel Recombinant and Engineered Protein Accumulation System (REPAS)

Recombinant proteins are critically important in a wide range of applications that extend from the treatment of human and animal disease, to chemical and biological defense. Production of genetically engineered vaccine antigens, therapeutic proteins (including monoclonal antibodies), industrial enzymes, biopolymers, and bioremediation agents now constitutes a multibillion dollar-per-year industry. However, the need for low cost systems for the rapid production of these proteins remains great. In Phase I we demonstrated feasibility of the use of a free-living ciliate, Tetrahymena thermophila, as novel platform for high-level expression of the H5 hemagglutinin of avian influenza virus. In Phase II we will extend this work to commercially relevant enzymes, and antibody fragments targeted against biowarfare agents with the goal of benchmarking both yield and production costs against competing systems. In addition, we will develop user-friendly protein expression kits for the research tool market based on the TetraExpressTM platform.