A Novel High-Throughput Protein Engineering Platform

Recombinant protein biologics have replaced small molecules as the major blockbuster drugs in the therapeutic pharmaceutical market, comprising a current world-wide market of over $140B per year.  We have developed a new technology platform which significantly increases the precision and reduces the time and investment required to discover novel therapeutic proteins. This innovation combines fluidic miniaturization, image processing, and rapid, proprietary single cell analysis and isolation; enabling screening of millions of protein-expressing cells in less than an hour, using a device the size of a silver dollar. In addition to antibody discovery, this transformative “million well microtiter plate” allows high-throughput drug screening applications currently not accessible with other technologies, including discovery of protein and peptide modulators that activate or inhibit biochemical pathways, and the development of novel enzyme catalysts.  The technology platform also has broad reaching impact for other biotechnology and medical applications where single cell analysis and isolation is critical.  I will discuss several examples of applications of this new platform in antibody engineering, the development of new protein fluorophores, and novel enzymes.