ENHANCED PRODUCTION OF HUMAN INTERLEUKIN 7 IN E. COLI

THE HUMAN GROWTH FACTOR INTERLEUKIN 7(IL-7) APPEARS TO BE ANESSENTIAL FACTOR FOR EARLY LYMPHOID B- AND T-CELL DEVELOPMENT. THE LONG-TERM OBJECTIVE IS TO TEST ITS EFFICACY BOTH IN VITRO AND IN VIVO IN IMPROVING BONE MARROW TRANSPLANTATION AND GENE TRANSFER PROTOCOLS. NATURAL IL-7 WAS RECENTLY CLONED AND EXPRESSED IN COS-7 CELLS BUT IS NOT COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE. THIS PHASE I PROJECT SPECIFICALLY AIMS TO DEVELOP A RECOMBINANT DNA SYSTEM TO PRODUCE IL-7. THE APPROACH TO BE USED WILL INVOLVE THE ASSEMBLY OF A SYNTHETIC GENE CODING FOR HUMAN IL-7. THE GENE WILL BE CLONED INTO A PLASMID AND EXPRESSED IN E. COLI. PRODUCTION OF THE GENE PRODUCT WILL BE OPTIMIZED SO THAT IL-7 CAN BE ECONOMICALLY PRODUCED. HIGH-LEVEL EXPRESSION OF IL-7 WILL ENABLE PHASE II RESEARCH TO FOCUS ON THE E. COLI FERMENTATION SCALE-UP, PURIFICATION,AND RENATURATION OF IL-7 TO YIELD BIOLOGICALLY ACTIVE IL-7.