The EntoEngine™
See how the EntoEngine can express your protein
Fruit flies for advanced biomanufacturing
Request a Protein ConsultReinventing recombinant protein production.
Using Drosophila melanogaster as the expression host, our first-of-its-kind EntoEngine™ combines genetic engineering with insect farming to produce recombinant proteins at scale.
Drosophila melanogaster
Key Advantages
Multicellular Expression
200+ distinct cell types with the genetic tools to selectively target expression–all in one platform
Inducible Expression
Robust, efficient, and pharma-safe inducible expression at scale, unlocking toxic protein production
Unparalleled Scaling Potential
Cost-effective and flexible, offering custom batch sizes from micrograms to grams
Genetic Stability
Long-term stability of expression strains means clients can receive quality proteins on-demand
Why flies?
E. coli and yeast offer speed and flexibility, but lack robust scale-up production capabilities.
This creates the need for stable cells lines, which results in a significant timeline bottleneck.
The EntoEngine eliminates trade-offs and bottlenecks with stable protein expression for large-scale commercial manufacturing.
The Question
How to scale up with affordability and efficiency?
The Problem
Bioreactor-based
Expression method
Expression method
The Solution
EntoEngine™
Expression method
Expression method
The Question
How to scale up with affordability and efficiency?
The Problem
Bioreactor-based
Expression method
Expression method
The Solution
EntoEngine™
Expression method
Expression method
Production Process: EntoEngine™ in Action
EntoEngine™ FAQ
The EntoEngine employs Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies) as a multi-cellular, whole-insect bioreactor to produce recombinant proteins. We genetically engineer transgenic flies with stable integration of the gene of interest into the genome. This is followed by protein expression, extraction, and purification. Click here to read more.
Yes! Alongside difficult-to-express proteins, the EntoEngine can make simple proteins such as basic fibroblast growth factors. With the natural efficiency of Drosophila, the EntoEngine can produce high performing active proteins at competitive prices.
Yes, we can. The co-expression of multiple proteins is a powerful approach often necessary for creating functional protein complexes. Our whole-insect expression approach is uniquely equipped to handle this process. For example, we successfully used our EntoEngine platform to express two different subunits that then assembled into a single, functional heterodimeric unit.
The EntoEngine is a stable expression system. This is significantly faster than traditional expression systems because our approach does not require the production of a Master Cell Bank (MCB). The MCB process, which involves generating a homogenous cell population, can add to the project’s timeline. Our approach bypasses this step by directly creating stable transgenic flies, therefore accelerating the proof-of-concept phase.
The EntoEngine platform offers a sustainable and versatile alternative to conventional systems like CHO and E. coli. While E. coli is cost-effective, it can struggle in the manufacturing of complex proteins with post-translational modifications (PTMs). CHO cells can handle complex proteins with PTMs, but they are often capital-intensive and time consuming at scale. The EntoEngine, by contrast, uses fruit flies as a bioreactor to efficiently produce complex and “difficult-to-express” proteins with PTMs. Our approach significantly reduces the capital costs, resource conception, and environmental footprint compared to the conventional methods.
Read more on our blog article, “Overview of Recombinant Protein Expression Systems”
Our platform has demonstrated its ability to express functionally active recombinant proteins ranging from 4 kDa to 250 kDa in size, and we continue to expand this range.
EntoEngine can produce glycosylated proteins without the immunogenic 𝛼1,3-Fucosylation, consistently and without batch-to-batch variations.
Read our latest case study on insect glycosylation using Erythropoietin as a model protein.
The EntoEngine’s yield is comparable to that of conventional CHO bioreactors on a time-normalized scale, a metric that accounts for the full production cycle. With our whole-insect bioreactor approach, the turnaround time becomes faster, making the EntoEngine a highly efficient and competitive platform.
The EntoEngine is equipped with a cost-efficient, inducible expression approach.This method prevents unwanted constitutive expression, preserving production of the protein of interest regardless of host-cell toxicity.
