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Updated: Aug 16, 2026

Using Synthetic Biology to Engineer Living Cells That Interface with Programmable Materials
Published on: March 9, 2017
Cell factory engineering: Challenges and opportunities for synthetic biology applications
Bhagyashree Bachhav1, Jacopo de Rossi2, Carlos D Llanos2
1Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA.
Abstract:
The production of high-quality recombinant proteins is critical to maintaining a continuous supply of biopharmaceuticals, such as therapeutic antibodies. Engineering mammalian cell factories presents a number of limitations typically associated with the proteotoxic stress induced upon aberrant accumulation of off-pathway protein folding intermediates, which eventually culminate in the induction of apoptosis. In this review, we will discuss advances in cell engineering and their applications at different hierarchical levels of control of the expression of recombinant proteins, from transcription and translational to posttranslational modifications and subcellular trafficking. We also highlight challenges and unique opportunities to apply modern synthetic biology tools to the design of programmable cell factories for improved biomanufacturing of therapeutic proteins.
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