Tech transfer organization MRC Technology negotiated a license allowing Bio-Techne to develop reagent products using a protein synthesis technology, Genetically encoded Orthogonal Protection and Activated Ligation (GOPAL), developed at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Bio-Techne company Boston Biochem will be applying the technology to its products and plans to test out how well it can introduce post-translational modifications into proteins for structural and functional studies.

GOPAL, according to MRC, enables the formation of site-specific isopeptide bonds between proteins. Bio-Techne initially plans to apply GOPAL toward developing ubiquitin dimers and in the future may also use it to develop trimers and tetramers. The technology, which the firms say has already been validated for ubiquitin, may also be applied to other proteins as well. MRC believes GOPAL offers an advantage over in vitro synthesis as it allows for the production of a homogenous product via the cellular expression of ubiquitin with a protected lysine incorporated at a site-specific, user-defined site. 

“We have every confidence that the reagents produced will be of great value to researchers,” Ranmali Nawaratne, Ph.D., senior business manager at MRC Technology, said in a statement.

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