Stanford University Bioengineers Speed Up Protein Testing to 24 Hours

Bioengineers from Stanford University have developed a new protein engineering method that can design, build, and test protein variants in just 24 hours. The technique, called MIDAS or Microbe-Independent Deep Assembly and Screening, could accelerate research in medicine, biotechnology, and environmental science by simplifying how proteins are engineered and tested.

Traditional protein engineering often requires a process that can take days or weeks. Using MIDAS, the team bypassed microbial cloning by using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to rapidly assemble genes and transfer them directly into mammalian cells for testing. The researchers said the approach allows hundreds or even thousands of protein variants to be tested simultaneously.

In one experiment, MIDAS evaluated 384 protein variants in about four hours of laboratory work using around $2,000 worth of reagents. In comparison, conventional methods would require about 192 hours and nearly $20,000 to test only 24 variants. The researchers estimated that MIDAS is nearly 50 times faster and costs about one-tenth as much as traditional cloning-based methods.

For more information, read the press release from Stanford University.