In Vitro sorting method
AssigneeMedical Research Council
InventorsAndrew Griffiths, Dan Tawfik
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Abstract
The invention describes a method for isolating one or more genetic elements encoding a gene product having a desired activity, comprising of the steps of: compartmentalizing genetic elements into microcapsules; expressing the genetic elements to produce their respective gene products within the microcapsules; sorting the genetic elements which produce the gene product having a desired activity. The invention enables the in vitro evolution of nucleic acids by repeated mutagenesis and iterative applications of the method of the invention.
Claims21
A method for isolating one or more genetic elements encoding a gene product having a desired activity, comprising the steps of:
- (a) expressing the genetic elements to produce their respective gene products such that the gene products are linked to the genes encoding them;
- (b) compartmentalizing the genetic elements into microcapsules;
- (c) sorting the genetic elements which produce gene product(s) having the desired activity.
A method for preparing a gene product, comprising the steps of:
- (a) preparing a genetic clement encoding the gene product;
- (b) expressing the genetic elements to produce their respective gene products such that the gene products are linked to the genetic elements encoding them;
- (c) compartmentalizing genetic elements into microcapsules;
- (d) sorting the genetic elements which produce the gene product(s) having the desired activity;
- and
- (e) expressing the gene product having the desired activity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.