The expansion of the biologics pipeline
depends on the identification of candidate
proteins for clinical trials. Speed is one of the
critical issues, and the rapid production of high
quality, research-grade material for preclinical
studies by transient gene expression (TGE) is
addressing this factor in an impressive way:
following DNA transfection, the production
phase for TGE is usually 2–10 days. Recombinant
proteins (r-proteins) produced by TGE can
therefore enter the drug development and screening
process in a very short time––weeks. With
‘‘classical’’ approaches to protein expression from
mammalian cells, it takes months to establish a
productive host cell line. This article summarizes
efforts in industry and academia to use TGE to
produce tens to hundreds of milligrams of rproteins
for either fundamental research or preclinical
studies.