Semliki Forest Virus Vectors for Large-Scale Production of Recombinant Proteins

Recombinant protein expression is one of the basic elements of modern molecular biology. The completion of the sequencing of the human genome has, in fact, accelerated the need of rapid and efficient expression systems. Extensive efforts have been dedicated to the development of expression systems for bacterial, yeast, insect, and mammalian cells. The reason for using mammalian expression systems is obviously the correct posttranslational modification capacity and the most authentic environment for production of therapeutically interesting proteins. Today, it is also important that large quantities of recombinant proteins be produced and subjected to purification and structural studies to obtain high-resolution structures to aid rational drug design.