APEX: Automated Protein EXpression in Escherichia coli Heterologous protein expression is an indispensable strategy for generating recombinant proteins. Escherichia coli (E. coli) is the most widely used microbial host for recombinant protein production due to its rapid growth, well-characterized genetics, and ability to produce recombinant proteins in high yields using modern recombinant DNA technology. However, while there is a plethora of robust protein expression protocols for E. coli, these methods are often unsuitable for high-throughput screening due to their significant resource and time consumption; these protocols are also susceptible to operator error and inconsistency. To address these challenges, we developed Automated Protein EXpression (APEX), a robust and automated pipeline for recombinant protein production in E. coli. APEX leverages the accessible, open-source Opentrons OT-2 platform to automate microbial handling and protein expression with high precision and reproducibility. APEX can be configured to perform heat shock transformation, selective plating, colony sampling, microculturing, and protein expression induction using a low-cost, minimal OT-2 hardware setup. We further demonstrate the efficacy of our automated transformation workflows using a variety of plasmids (2.7–17.7 kb) and exemplify the automated heterologous expression of a diverse array of proteins (27–222 kDa). Designed with customization, modularity, and user-friendliness in mind, APEX can be easily adapted to the operator’s needs without requiring any coding expertise. APEX is available at https://github.com/stracquadaniolab/apex-nf under the AGPL3 license.

Excited to share our new publication in ACS Synthetic Biology!

We introduce #APEX - an open-source, automated pipeline for recombinant protein production in E. coli, developed by our super talented Martyna Kasprzyk!

Check it out: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

I’m incredibly proud of the progress we’ve made. What began as a vision to better understand how to engineer therapeutic enzymes is now taking shape through promising early data, a world-class scientific team, and a clear development roadmap.

Announcing the launch of our #Seed #Funding #Round as we take the next step in our mission to transform the future of #enzyme #replacement #therapies for #lysosomal #storage #diseases.

With a passionate team, early proof-of-concept data, and a clear path to the clinic, we’re ready to scale!

Let’s see if I can make it next year!

I won’t attend but please get in touch with Susan and Alice if you want to know more about our #advanced #therapeutics for #lysosomal #storage #disorders.

Had a great time the past 2 days hosting my good friend and colleague Dr Boyd McKew from @universityofessex.bsky.social obviously lots of good chat about sequencing, synthetic biology, diving and beers :)

Pushing the boundaries of therapeutics here at @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social If you want to know more about our work in the hub on #Fabry and #MPSIVA get in touch. #ML #engbio #rare #diseases

Latest addition to our #enzyme #replacement #therapy platform: the Getinge Applikon #miniBio 500mL bioreactor. Excited to start new pilot projects on up-scaling enzyme production.
Thanks Scottish Enterprise to continuously support ZYTHERA's journey in/outside the lab.

#rare #disease #bioproduction

It’s #rare #disease #day! There are ~10,000 rare diseases, most lacking a cure or treatment. The path that patients and carers go through is something no one should ever experience.

Let’s harness the #new #technologies from our labs to deliver personalised medicine, because nobody is rare!

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It never gets old :)

Some of our recent work:
- Temporal Dirichlet Variational Autoencoder: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

- Protein engineering by variational energy approximation
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Hi there! Officially starting my new academic account on @bsky.app.

My group works on generative #AI models and #hightroughput #protein #expression and #screening platforms to engineer potent therapies for #lysosomal #storage #diseases. Learn more at: www.stracquadaniolab.org