Vector Development

Vector Development and the Power of IN VIVO Technology

C-PERL has substantial expertise in, and experience with, the Baculovirus Expression Vector System (BEVS).  We employ both commercially available and custom vectors, including an established library of donor vectors, and have at our disposal a broad array of molecular tools, including controlling proteolytic activity that enable us to maximize expression of functional recombinant protein.

The majority of our target proteins are expressed under transcriptional control of either baculoviral polyhedrin or p10 promoters, which provide high levels of transcription during very late stage infection.  However, since expression under these promoters peaks near death of the infected insect, processing of some target proteins can be compromised.  In these cases we are able to select from a variety of vectors based on a variety of promoters with different timings and with different strength of expression. 

C-PERL also employs insect regulatory elements, including signal sequences of different origins (e.g., the signal peptide of baculoviral gp64 protein, signal peptides from the insect proteins bombyxin and melittin) and folding assistant factors (chaperones) to ensure project success.

The combination of our experience, our vector library and our molecular tool box with the tissue heterogeneity of the insect larvae usually result in the expression of proteins that are properly modified and processed and expressed at levels that exceed those in other systems.