With the increased importance of biobased production and circular economies, the production of recombinant proteins has become a multi‑billion Euro industry. Applications vary greatly and can range from industrial enzymes to cosmetics and medicine. However, current methods which make use of microbial platforms are often hindered by an expensive and lengthy production process.
In collaboration with the Université de Bordeaux, this project aims to engineer bacterial secretion systems to optimize the production and purification of recombinant proteins. Proteins of interest (POIs) are generally made inside the cell but breaking cells open to harvest them destroys the culture while secretion greatly limits the yield and characteristics of possible POIs. One bacterial system which efficiently secretes proteins is the flagellar Type III Secretion System (fT3SS). The fT3SS is able to secrete the proteins necessary to assemble flagella at a rapid pace. We therefore focus on studying its determining factors for secretion and how we can engineer them to optimize the secretion of recombinant proteins. Combined with engineering strains which can synthesize POIs in vivo this creates a high‑yield low‑cost bacterial production platform. Such platforms can lower barriers for the production of specific proteins, as well as accelerate the development of a quick affordable pipeline for new industrial and therapeutic solutions.