MultiBac

MultiBac expression system uses DNA recombination to allow for easy, high-throughput compatible construction of baculovirus vectors for multiprotein expression in insect cells. Multiprotein coexpression is required to produce protein complexes, such as multivalent vaccines, or multiple individual proteins in the same cell, such as for signaling pathways.

Multi expression technologies are also the cornerstone of the emerging synthetic biology revolution. The MultiBac platform has been used for the production of whole intact signal transduction pathways such as GPCR signaling cascades, kinase cascades, and protease cascades. MultiBac has also been used for the production of virus-like particles (VLPs) and a wide variety of multiprotein complexes.

Baculovirus Expression Vector Systems (BEVS) such as MultiBac is a front-line technology platform for the production of protein kinases, GPCRs, and ion channels for drug discovery, and are a major area of interest as delivery vectors for gene therapy. Insect cell expression using baculovirus as a vector is also becoming increasingly used in the manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals with notable success stories emerging recently including Cervarix and Flublok.

MultiBac is an advanced baculovirus/insect cell expression platform specifically tailored for the production of eukaryotic multiprotein complexes and complex biologics including therapeutic proteins.  MultiBac is installed in the Berger laboratory at the University of Bristol, School of Biochemistry. MultiBac can be accessed by researchers from academia and industry at Bristol’s EEF (contact [email protected] for details).

MultiBac utilizes an optimized baculovirus that has been engineered in the Berger lab for high-quality protein production. A fluorescent marker has been integrated into the viral backbone to enable virus performance tracking and production of complex biologics. This virus is accessed by multigene constructs containing the DNA encoding for the protein complex produced. This multigene construct is generated from small synthetic precursor plasmid modules into which the genes of interest are inserted. Interfaced with the proprietary ACEMBL pipeline the MultiBac platform can be used for biologics production in high-throughput mode.

MultiBac was awarded prestigious prizes including the Swiss Technology Award in 2007 and continues to attract competitive funding from the European Commission since FP6 and throughout FP7. The MultiBac platform has been accessed by many scientists from Europe and worldwide for intensive training and for protein production. It is successfully integrated with numerous co-development, R&D, and discovery programs, in academia and industry.

For in silico generating Donor-Acceptor fusion constructs you can use Cre-ASSEMBLER.