About the Core
The Recombinant Protein Production and Characterization (RPPC) Core is an Institutional Advanced Technology Core available to all Baylor College of Medicine investigators on a fee-for-service basis.
The mission of the core is to provide high-quality purified protein products in sufficient quantities for various experimental applications including in vitro biochemical and biophysical analysis, macromolecular structure and as therapeutic targets for drug development projects. The major core services are the following:
- Up-front consultation on experimental design and assistance with construction of various recombinant protein expression vectors.
- Expression of recombinant proteins in three different overexpression system options including: E. Coli, baculovirus (SF9 insect cells), and mammalian cells (Expi293F).
- Purification of recombinant proteins by affinity and conventional chromatography procedures and quality control analysis of purified products. This includes investigator proteins of interest and monoclonal antibodies from existing hybridoma cell lines.
- Molecular Characterization of purified proteins by various biophysical methods.
Core services can be requested in iLabs.
Getting Started
If you have questions and plan to make use of the core, please email atc-protein-mab@bcm.edu. We can offer consultation in Zoom or in-person meeting.
Notification: For Generation of New Monoclonal Antibodies
Generation of new monoclonal antibodies by traditional mouse hybridoma technologies is no longer being offered as a core service. We have a formal MOU - Memorandum of Understanding with the MD Anderson Cancer Center for reciprocal access to each other's core facilities at internal pricing. MDACC has a monoclonal antibody core that provides comparable services to ours and they are willing and able to accept projects from BCM investigators for custom generation of new monoclonal antibodies. The re-organized RPPC will still express and purify monoclonal antibodies from existing hybridoma cell lines, including those prepared in by the previous core.
Visit the MD Anderson Cancer Center website for detailed information and how to access the MDACC Core.
Recombinant Protein Expression
The core has large refrigerated shaking incubators and bioreactors to overexpress recombinant proteins of interest in E.coli, insect and mammalian systems.
Purification of Recombinant Proteins
The core performs purification of high quality recombinant proteins of interest by a variety of affinity and conventional chromatography techniques.
Protein Characterization
The core providea various protein characterization technologies and instruments. Instruments are available in the core to characterize proteins and other macromolecules.