Poster
Presentation 06:
Engineering Sialylation into Insect
Cells
Shawn Lawrence, Lee Pitts, Tim Coleman,
Yuan C. Lee, Willie Vann, Michael Betenbaugh
Johns Hopkins University
3400 N. Charles St.
Baltimore, MD 21218
shawn.lawrence@jhu.edu
(410)516-5336
The carbohydrate content of a glycoprotein,
especially sialic acid, can effect its solubility, biological activity,
and circulatory half-life. Glycoproteins generated by insect cells
with the baculovirus expression vector, however, contain little if any
bound sialic acid. In order to provide sialylation, methods must
be implemented to express the relevant enzymes. Genomic databases
can be used to identify the critical sialylation genes. These genes
are then inserted into baculovirus vectors for expression in insect cells.
Enzyme activity is measured to determine the effect of insertion of the
foreign gene and its role in the sialylation of glycoproteins.
|