Work

Assessing the feasibility of CRISPRa approaches to enhance protein-based biomaterial expression in bacterial systems for more efficient production

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Recombinant protein production is crucial for biomedical and industrial applications; however, achieving high yields for complex protein-like biomaterials such as elastin-like recombinamers (ELRs) remains challenging. ELRs, protein-based polymers derived from tropoelastin, emulate the mechanical and bioactive properties of natural tissues, making them valuable for numerous uses. Despite their promise, implementing a sophisticated molecular system for ELR production in Escherichia coli involves overcoming multiple hurdles, including metabolic bottlenecks and low yields. In this study, we employed a CRISPR activation (CRISPRa) system to enhance ELR expression in E. coli . Although further optimization is required to reach industrial-scale outputs, our findings establish a proof of concept for taking advantage of CRISPRa to boost recombinamers yields. Such improvements represent a crucial step toward scalable production, facilitating the commercial adoption of ELRs and, in general, recombinamers not only in biomedical applications but also in broader industries that stand to benefit from these versatile biomaterials.

Source: Materials Today Bio

DOI: 10.1016/j.mtbio.2025.101720

Authors: Pablo Rodríguez-Alonso, Viktoriya Chaskovska, Desiré Venegas-Bustos, Alba Herraiz, Matilde Alonso, Jose Carlos Rodríguez-Cabello

Institutions: Universidad de Valladolid, Biomedical Research Networking Center in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine

Language: English

Topic: Microbial Metabolic Engineering and Bioproduction

Subfield: Molecular Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,400