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PROTEIN ENGINEERING SERVICES
A high-throughput platform for enhancing any protein: antibodies, viruses, membrane proteins, fusion proteins, and more
100+ protein engineering projects
10–100x improvements
20+ years protein engineering experience
The Most Versatile Protein Engineering Platform in the Industry
Do you want your protein to work better? Using our high-throughput engineering platform, we make hundreds of variants of any protein expressed from a human cell line – antibodies, viruses, enzymes, cytokines, and more. You get ready-to-use protein variants expressed from human cells ready for testing in your assay, and your team’s time is free for other work.
Protein engineering offers a systematic approach to generating protein variants with improved characteristics — e.g. higher affinity, greater stability, or increased enzymatic activity. But proteins are complex, and it’s difficult to predict which mutations will produce the desired outcome, even with structural analysis and AI predictions. Ultimately, variants must be expressed and tested— often in human cells, which many proteins require for proper folding, post-translational modifications, and biological activity.
“We have been impressed by Integral Molecular’s membrane protein expertise and their proven record in discovering antibodies against membrane proteins.”
Applications for Protein Engineering
Protein Engineering can bring you closer to reaching your goals across countless applications. Beyond the examples listed below, our team has worked extensively with membrane proteins, fusion proteins, and many others.
Improve a therapeutic monoclonal antibody’s characteristics, such as its affinity, specificity, or developability.
Modify an enzyme’s amino acid sequence for increased activity, binding, expression, or stability.
Modify a viral surface protein to improve viral budding and titers for your cell or gene therapy candidate.
Available Service: Custom variant protein expression library
Single amino acid substitution library for antibodies and other proteins (one amino acid substitute per variant)
Use this service if you know which mutations you want to test. We will make the constructs and express the proteins in human cells. You’ll receive hundreds of expressed protein variants of your target molecule, ready to test in your lab for improved characteristics. It’s a great way to translate predictions from AI and structures into experimental data.
Example applications for this service
Target proteins | Desired outcomes |
|---|---|
Monoclonal antibodies Enzymes Cytokines Viral surface proteins | Binding affinity Specificity Stability Enzymatic activity Expression, trafficking & secretion Developability Viral budding |
Project Workflow
With our custom variant protein expression library service, you provide the target protein sequence, and we’ll send you protein variants, expressed from human cells, ready to test in your lab. Each step in the project workflow includes at least one quality control checkpoint.
Stay tuned! More protein engineering services will be coming soon. If you have a specific application in mind for a service that is not yet available, please contact us to discuss a custom project.
Experience You Can Trust
When you use Integral Molecular’s Protein Engineering services, you access more than a platform—you also gain access to our wealth of expertise and uncompromising quality standards.
Our Protein Engineering services grew out of technologies we developed for our own in-house and custom projects. Over more than a decade, our scientists have refined, optimized, and automated our platform. We have engineered hundreds of proteins and described the outcomes in dozens of papers.
Now, we extend the benefits of these platforms to you, tailored to your project’s specific needs.
Featured Publications
For more publications featuring our protein engineering technologies, visit the Resources page.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many mutations can I purchase for my protein engineering project?
We typically create libraries with 92–552 mutations, arrayed in a 96-well format.
What volume of supernatant will I receive?
You will receive 200 µL of supernatant material for each expressed protein variant, shipped on dry ice.
Can I send my own wild-type parental plasmid?
As part of your project fee and timeline, we build a wild-type parental plasmid at no extra charge. We can also use a wild-type plasmid supplied by the customer if it meets our requirements, but it will not change the price or timeline of the project.
Can I order additional supernatant samples, plasmid DNA, or glycerol stocks?
Yes. The price of your project includes 200 µL samples of supernatant for each expressed variant and 15 plasmid clones of your choice. For additional fees, you can order additional 96-well plates of supernatant samples, additional plasmid samples, and 96-well arrays of glycerol stocks from your project.
Can I request a specific method to verify and quantify expression of my protein variants?
Our standard measurement of expression is by biosensor, and in some cases flow cytometry. Alternative methods of detection may be available on a customer basis.
Do you offer mutations other than single amino acid substitutions?
Currently, we offer protein expression libraries only with single amino acid substitutions. In the future, we will offer additional mutagenesis strategies.
Can I construct a variant library for a non-antibody protein?
Yes, our engineering platform is suited to any protein that can be expressed in a cell line such as human HEK-293 cells. We have expressed antibodies, viral proteins, enzymes, cytokines, and many other types of proteins.
Can I express more than one protein at once?
Yes, our platform can express several proteins at once if needed, for instance heterocomplexes or viral particles. Typically, one of these proteins is mutated while the others are wild type.
Can I use a tag other than Fc or HIS for the construct?
Currently, detection of our protein expression libraries is optimized for Fc (e.g., antibodies) or HIS-tagged proteins. In the future, we will offer additional epitope tags.
What cell lines do you use for protein expression? Can I choose a specific cell line?
We currently express clones in human HEK-293T cells for all projects. Our system is optimized for robust expression in this cell line. In the future, we will offer additional cell types.
What information do you include with the supernatant samples?
Every project includes a QC report with the concentrations of the WT and positive internal control (in µg/mL) as well as expression levels of each mutant clone relative to WT.
Do you offer assay development or other specialized R&D work?
Yes! In addition to protein engineering services (where we deliver expressed protein mutations for you to test), we also routinely conduct a range of protein engineering and assay development projects for customers and partners. Please contact us to discuss custom R&D projects.
What happens if you run into technical difficulties with my target protein and cannot complete the project?
Our protein engineering platform has been used for over a decade with >95% success. However, due to circumstances beyond our control, projects do occasionally fail. That’s why we stage the project and run quality control measures at each stage to make sure your project is on track.
If we run into a problem, we will immediately pause your project and notify you. We will not charge you for work we do not complete.