Integrated drug discovery services provider BioAscent – based at Pioneer Group’s BioCity Glasgow location – has opened its state-of-the-art protein production facility in an event officiated by Professor Michael Barrett OBE.

The new facility marks the latest key investment the company has made, further strengthening its in-house drug discovery capabilities with the ability to deliver protein production in-house, thereby implementing the most informative screening cascades for its customers.

The lab will be run by BioAscent’s highly skilled protein scientists, all of whom have significant post-doctoral and industrial experience in protein biochemistry, biophysics, and structural biology. The team will now be able to process samples under controlled conditions, with equipment dedicated to the expression and purification of proteins from various systems, including bacteria, mammalian, and insect cells.

Significant investment has been made in specialist equipment, including new FPLC (fast protein liquid chromatography) in a dedicated cooling cabinet and a high-pressure homogenizer, as well as shaking incubators, a sonicator, and a Category II tissue culture lab. A NanoTemper Tycho allows the team to determine protein stability and quality in a quick five-minute assay, and protein melting temperature can now be analysed with the QuantStudio 5.

BioAscent welcomed Professor Michael Barrett OBE to open the facility officially on February 20, 2024. Professor Barrett is a Professor in Parasitology, Deputy Head of the School of Infection and Immunity at the University of Glasgow, and Chair of the Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance (SULSA).

Stuart McElroy, Director of Biosciences at BioAscent: “Being able to access high-quality protein is the foundation for success in many drug discovery projects. Previously, we were reliant on external sources for protein meaning we had less control over the quality and were sometimes limited by availability, as not all protein targets can be sourced on the reagent market.

“Having our own in-house facility means we can now rapidly generate multiple constructs or mutants to answer specific research questions during a project, such as identifying key binding site residues driving molecular recognition, providing structural biology, or tagging proteins differently to aid successful development of biophysical assays such as SPR.”