Cambridge, UK: TAP Biosystems, a leading supplier of innovative cell culture systems and consumables for life science applications, is pleased to announce a new collaboration with Life Technologies, one of the world’s foremost suppliers of cell culture products and molecular biology reagents for life science research, to develop a cost-efficient, high throughput protein expression platform.

The partnership will combine Life Technologies’ Expi293™ Expression System for transient transfection with TAP’s ambr™ advanced micro bioreactor to enable automated high throughput small scale protein expression. The increased culture consistency and productivity provided by both the Expi293 and ambr systems will offer an exciting new platform for both small volume protein expression screens and optimisation of transient expression conditions.

The ambr system uses realistic scale down bioreactors where culture conditions such as pH and DO are tightly controlled in 48 micro bioreactors (10-15 mL) in parallel, so that protein quality produced by the Expi293F cells cultured in ambr is highly consistent. The protein generated can be used with confidence in vector optimisation studies, as well as high throughput, small scale functional protein production and protein purification studies.

Dr Sanjay Vasu, Staff Scientist at Life Technologies explained: “Currently with Expi293F cells we’re seeing yields of up to 1g/L, exceeding the expression levels of even bacterial systems. The benefit of this is that scientists will have sufficient protein for analytical studies. And since this is a mammalian system, mammalian proteins are more likely to be properly folded and biologically active. We are pleased to be collaborating with TAP because using the ambr system’s automated bioprocessing capabilities; we can leverage both our platforms to provide high yields in a high throughput format for lower costs, which will represent a real breakthrough for many protein screeners.”

Dr Barney Zoro, ambr Product Manager at TAP Biosystems added: “Most high throughput protein expression is performed manually in 30mL shake flask cultures or in shaking plates, where there isn’t consistent pH and DO control. Manually intensive shake flask workflows are costly to operate, can produce variable results for productivity and protein quality, and often show poor scalability to larger bioreactor cultures. Since the Expi293 Expression System can produce milligram to gram quantities of protein with consistent quality, it is ideal to amplify this with the consistent automation and proven scalability of the ambr system. This will enable scientists to rapidly automate the generation of enough protein for analysis from 48 parallel cultures, thus saving laboratory staff time, increasing laboratory capacity and significantly reducing the cost per gram of protein produced. This powerful technology combination has the potential to revolutionise high throughput protein expression programmes and we’re delighted to be part of it.”

About TAP Biosystems

TAP Biosystems provides advanced automation systems and services to improve productivity in life science research, development and production.

For over 20 years TAP Biosystems has been the leader in the design and development of automated cell culture and processing systems with applications in bioprocessing, drug discovery and regenerative medicine. Systems include ambr, CellBase CT, CompacT SelecT, Polar and RAFT.

In addition, TAP Biosystems has a strong track record in providing a range of custom automation solutions for biobanking, biological sample management, compound management and advanced high throughput screening applications.

TAP Biosystems is a privately-owned company with headquarters near Cambridge, UK and a sales and support facility near Wilmington, Delaware, USA.

www.tapbiosystems.com

About Life Technologies

Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: LIFE) is a global biotechnology company with customers in more than 160 countries using its innovative solutions to solve some of today’s most difficult scientific challenges. Quality and innovation are accessible to every lab with its reliable and easy-to-use solutions spanning the biological spectrum, with more than 50,000 products for agricultural biotechnology, translational research, molecular medicine and diagnostics, stem cell-based therapies, forensics, food safety and animal health. Its systems, reagents and consumables represent some of the most cited brands in scientific research including: Ion Torrent™, Applied Biosystems®, Invitrogen™, Gibco®, Ambion®, Molecular Probes®, Novex®, and TaqMan®. Life Technologies employs approximately 10,400 people and upholds its ongoing commitment to innovation with more than 4,000 patents and exclusive licenses. LIFE had sales of $3.7 billion in 2011. Visit us at our website: https://www.lifetechnologies.com.