Team:Linkoping Sweden

LiU iGEM

The Folding Factory

The Project

The expression of proteins in bacteria is a way to enable production of biofuels, large scale production in the pharmaceutical industry, and research. However, mass production of certain proteins in bacteria is hindered by protein size or the complex folding structure of proteins.

Protein folding has been shown to be assisted by chaperones, a protein aiding the expression of other proteins in bacteria. We illustrate this by co-expression of GroES and proteins that are problematic to express in E-coli. GroES is mostly known as a co-chaperone, but some studies indicate that it has a folding property on its own. We have aimed at investigating this further in order to create a system for expressing proteins in bacteria. We hope that our findings will give insight into sustainable ways for industrial protein production.