Insect resistance to Cry proteins is growing – and conventional strategies are falling behind. But what if you could screen thousands of Cry1Ab variants in a single round, directly against resistant insect cell lines? Let’s future-proof your next-generation insecticidal proteins with acib’s next-generation screening platform.
Background
Cry1Ab has long been a cornerstone in bioinsecticide formulations, but growing resistance – particularly due to mutations in ABCC2/ABCC3 transporters – is threatening its effectiveness. Traditional strategies to identify improved Cry proteins rely heavily on time-consuming, labor-intensive bioassays using live insects, which are costly, ethically complex, and often too slow to keep pace with evolv-ing resistance.
acib proposes a smarter way forward: A next-generation screening platform, combining a Rosetta-based protein design tool with a fast, high-throughput expression & screening system that encompasses yeast-based secretory expression of Cry1Ab variants with direct cyto-toxicity assays on insect cell lines. This platform will accelerate the discovery of superior Cry1Ab variants and will enable rapid validation against real resistance targets.
Technology
- Generation and transformation of Cry1Ab variant libraries in the industrial yeast Pichia pastoris aka Komagataella phaffii
- Expression of up to 10,000 clones per round; supernatant used directly (no purification) i.e. easy and fast
- Activation of Cry proteins (solution or immobilized)
- Cytotoxicity screening on relevant insect cell lines
- Time-to-result: approx. 6 weeks per screening cycle (10,000 variants)
Offer
- Rapidly generate and evaluate custom Cry1Ab variants
- Benchmark activity against resistant insect cell models
- Identify top-performing leads for commercialization
