A universal approach to gene expression engineering.

In this study, we provide a universal approach to Gene Expression Engineering (GeneEE) for creating artificial expression systems. GeneEE leads to the generation of artificial 5 regulatory sequences (ARES) consisting of promoters and 5 untranslated regions. The ARES lead to the successful recruitment of RNA polymerase, related sigma factors and ribosomal proteins that result in a wide range of expression levels.

A Titratable Cell Lysis-on-Demand System for Droplet-Compartmentalized Ultrahigh-Throughput Screening in Functional Metagenomics and Directed Evolution.

Water-in-oil emulsion droplets are an attractive format for ultrahigh-throughput screening in functional metagenomics and directed evolution applications that allow libraries with more than 10 members to be characterized in a day. Single library members are compartmentalized in droplets that are generated in microfluidic devices and tested for the presence of target biocatalysts. The target proteins can be produced intracellularly, for example, in bacterial hosts in-droplet cell lysis is therefore necessary to allow the enzymes to encounter the substrate to initiate an activity assay.