Animal Origin-Free Recombinant BSA

Recombinant Bovine Serum Albumin (rBSA) is designed to provide exceptional quality and consistent performance for variety of molecular biology applications that require animal origin-free formulations. Recombinant BSA manufacturing technology helps ensure simplified logistics, regulatory compliance, and protection from animal related illnesses.

On this page:

Reasons to choose animal origin-free recombinant BSA
Comparison of recombinant BSA to native BSA
Impact of bovine serum albumin quality on molecular biology applications
Recombinant BSA manufacturing technology

Reasons to choose animal origin-free recombinant BSA

Animal origin-free (AOF) albumin is becoming widely used in molecular biology applications, offering numerous benefits over animal-derived counterparts. Produced through recombinant DNA technology, AOF rBSA is designed for high purity and consistency across batches, crucial for protocol standardization and reliable outcomes in sensitive techniques.

AOF rBSA promotes a lower risk of contamination from animal-derived pathogens, such as viruses and prions, by being manufactured in controlled environments with well-defined components. This is particularly important for vaccine development, and biotherapeutics, where the absence of animal-derived contaminants is a critical safety and regulatory requirement.

The high purity of AOF rBSA helps reduce unknown factors that could interfere with molecular biology assays, for cleaner results and a higher signal-to-noise ratio. This is beneficial for enzyme stabilization, ELISA, and other applications requiring a blocking agent.

Beyond scientific benefits, using AOF rBSA supports ethical principles by reducing, refining, and replacing the use of animals in research.

Comparison of recombinant BSA to native BSA

Recombinant BSA serves as a reliable alternative to native BSA in various molecular biology applications. The thermal shift assay (Figure 1) demonstrates comparable properties, such as melting temperature and hyrophobicity, of rBSA to native (wild-type) BSA. The results indicate that rBSA is in its native form and fully folded.

Thermal shift trace comparing native BSA to recombinant BSA

Figure 1. rBSA is in its native, fully folded form, as compared against wild-type BSA. All samples were diluted to 1 mg/mL in 50 mM Tris-HCl pH 7.6 with 150 mM NaCl. Samples were run in triplicate in Prometheus NT.48 Standard Capillaries. The temperature ramped from 20– 95°C at a rate of 2°C per minute, with laser intensity set to 60%.

Impact of bovine serum albumin quality on molecular biology applications

The quality of rBSA is crucial for its effectiveness in molecular biology applications. High purity rBSA helps avoid non-specific interactions or degradation of target molecules, contributing to accurate and reliable experimental results. Rigorous quality testing of rBSA facilitates its suitability and consistency, making it an important component in various biochemical and diagnostic assays (Table 1).

Table 1. Impact of rBSA quality tests for molecular biology applications

Specification	Specification value	Impact
Purity (SDS-Page)	≥95%	Minimizes interference from contaminating proteins
DNase activity	DNase-free	Protects DNA template/primers/probes from degradation in PCR, sequencing, cloning, etc.
RNase activity	RNase-free	Protects RNA from degradation in RT-PCR, RNA-seq, in vitro transcription, RNA studies
Protease activity	Protease-free	Prevents degradation of enzymes (polymerases, restriction enzymes) or other protein components being stabilized by albumin
Animal Origin-Free status (AOF)	Produced in non-animal systems with AOF components	Enhances safety (no animal pathogens/prions), improves consistency, aligns with regulatory preferences, ethical considerations
Host cell gDNA	Not detectable	Prevents sample contamination by host DNA

Recombinant BSA manufacturing technology

Schematic of the manufacturing process for rBSA

Figure 2. Recombinant BSA Manufacturing Technology.

The production of rBSA employs recombinant DNA technology to generate an animal origin-free protein. rBSA is manufactured in D-class clean room facilities using well-defined, animal origin-free raw materials. A specifically designed protein purification scheme is implemented to help ensure the elimination of nucleases, proteases, and host DNA, resulting in exceptionally high-quality rBSA. Protein expression in yeast enables the production of full-length, fully folded rBSA.