A platform for yeast and mammalian cell culture production of membrane proteins

Biomembranes surround all cells in life and are critical barriers that determine how cells interact with each-other and the environment, and how cells are subdivided in organelles and compartments. The function of biomembranes is ensured by embedded membrane proteins, and they are also considered major targets in drug discovery and biotechnology. We study the structure and function of membrane proteins using primarily cryo-electron microscopy and rely on the ability to produce the proteins in either yeast expression systems or mammalian cell cultures. We apply for a state-of-the-art bench-top bioreactor system for yeast cell growth and for a fluorescence microscope to investigate the expression of membrane protein in mammalian cell cultures.