Qiagen and Geneart partner on synthetic human genes

Netherlands-based Qiagen and Germany's Geneart have announced their collaboration to develop, produce and commercialize a new product line for the enhanced production of all 35,000 human proteins. QIAgenes is said to be the world's first comprehensive set of plasmids (small extra-chromosomal DNA molecules in bacteria) which serve as carriers (vectors) for modified (optimized) synthetic genes mapping the entire human genome.

By using the QIAgenes set of plasmids and optimized genes for synthetic protein production in bacteria, academic and biomedical researchers, as well as biotech and pharmaceutical companies can more easily produce large amounts of proteins which play key roles in diseases such as cancer and their treatment. This new product line enables researchers to facilitate the development of new therapeutics and vaccines and accelerates future drug screening processes.