Oxford, UK, 28 January 2009 - Oxford Expression Technologies (OET), a leading provider of baculovirus-based protein expression products and services, has launched baculoXPRESS™, a suite of comprehensive baculovirus expression services that can be tailored to individual requirements. Lead by Professors Linda King and Robert Possee, the world opinion leaders in baculovirus expression, the new services will provide customers with multiple recombinant viruses simultaneously, quickly and cost-effectively. The routine use of flashBACGOLD/ULTRA in the services will also result in increased protein yield and quality.
baculoXPRESS™ services include gene synthesis; PCR cloning; sub-cloning; production of recombinant viruses using flashBAC™, flashBACGOLD™, or flashBACULTRATM virus DNA; expression optimisation; protein production and purification; and next-day virus titration using OET’s baculoQUANT™ methodology — each providing defined deliverables with relevant documentation. Additional expression services are available on request.
Commenting on the launch, James Bernard, CEO, said: “baculoXPRESS™ has been designed to provide our customers with a comprehensive range of services and consultancy to meet their individual protein expression requirements quickly and cost-effectively. We are able to offer both off-the-shelf products and bespoke services to meet specific customer needs, regardless of the size of the project. Our flexibility ensures that we can make one small-scale recombinant virus and test expression, make 50 recombinant viruses, or scale-up protein production. Backed by our extensive R&D programme, baculoXPRESS™ provides a complete gene to protein service.”
About Oxford Expression Technologies
Oxford Expression Technologies (OET) is a biotechnology company and centre of excellence for baculovirus protein expression. Specialising in the use of the baculovirus expression vector system, a eukaryotic expression system that can express a large variety of recombinant proteins, OET provides protein expression products, services and consultancy to many global pharmaceutical companies. OET’s proprietary flashBACTM technology enables large amounts of a given protein to be produced in culture. The Company’s internationally renowned expertise and products enable proteins to be produced faster, more easily and cost-effectively using automated and high-throughput methods compared with other baculovirus systems. This contributes to the development of new drugs and research targeted towards understanding how proteins work in health and disease.
The Company was founded in 2007 from a collaboration between Oxford Brookes University and the Natural Environment Research Council to provide researchers with custom proteins for research purposes. For further details about the Company’s services and products, please visit http://www.oetltd.com/
Professor Linda King is Professor of Virology and Dean of the School of Life Sciences, Oxford Brookes University (UK). Following the completion of her doctorate in molecular virology at Oxford University in 1985, Linda’s research has focused on various aspects of insect virology with particular emphasis on baculovirus expression systems. She has published more than 90 papers in peer-reviewed journals, reviews and book chapters, and until recently was Insect Virus Editor for The Journal of General Virology. She has spoken at numerous national and international meetings, including The American Society for Virology, The Society for Invertebrate Pathology, Peptalk, Global Protein Summit & Baculovirus Technology. Linda played an integral role in the establishment of Oxford Expression Technologies (OET), trading under Oxford Brookes Enterprises Ltd, in 1997.
Professor Robert Possee graduated in Biological Sciences from the University of Birmingham before moving to the University of Warwick to undertake a PhD on influenza viruses. In 1981, he moved to the NERC Institute of Virology, now CEH Oxford to work on the molecular biology of insect baculoviruses, which at the time were used for insect biocontrol. The next ten years saw the development of baculovirus expression vector systems at Oxford. His group produced the first of many innovations to the system that permitted easier construction of baculovirus expression vectors. More recently, the basic research developed in his group has been applied to the creation of the flashBACTM system for high throughput generation of recombinant virus vectors. In 1999 he received an Individual Merit Promotion award from NERC in recognition of his achievements in insect virology. In 2002 he was appointed Assistant Director of CEH Oxford and was Acting Director in 2003-2004. Currently he is Head of the CEH Oxford site with specific responsibility for Molecular Virology. Robert is an Editorial Board member for Journal of General Virology, Virology, Biological Control and the virology section of the Encyclopaedia of Life Sciences.
