Getting Proteins Into Cells

A postdoctoral fellow has just identified an interesting new gene. But to get published in a top-flight journal, there's a need to figure out what the gene product does in vivo. Unfortunately, to accomplish that, the postdoc needs a way to get the protein into the cell, and therein lies the problem: There are many fast and effective methods to introduce transcriptionally active DNA into cells,1 but options for delivering functional proteins into cells are limited. New research and commercially a

Laura Bonetta

| 9 min read

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Protein transduction is the process by which peptide or protein motifs cross the cellular plasma membrane.² The direct application of functional peptides and proteins to cells has been used to probe signal transduction pathways, block transcription factors, and conduct detailed structure/function analyses of integrin and other receptors' cytoplasmic domains, among other research applications.³

One of the main advantages of protein transduction over DNA transfection as a method to express proteins in cells is that, whereas some mammalian cells are notoriously difficult to transfect, all mammalian cells tested to date are receptive to protein transduction. In addition, transduction occurs rapidly, with the protein detected in about 10 minutes rather than after several hours or days. Finally, by varying the amount of protein added to the culture medium, researchers can control the final intracellular protein concentration.

Protein transduction is not the only protein-delivery method. Scientists can achieve the same effect using other, ...

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