Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) are “blebbed” from the surface of gram-negative bacteria such as E.coli. Under certain conditions, the rate of blebbing increases. A number of genes have been identified that control blebbing, and hypervesiculating strains have been developed that bleb at higher rates. These hypervesiculating strains provide a potential means to secrete membrane-bound recombinant proteins and create functionalised OMVs with one or more recombinant proteins present in the “blebbed vesicles”.

In this project, we are interested in exploiting this property to create functional enzyme cascades in secreted OMVs. 

BABS academic responsible for this project:

• Associate Professor Chris Marquis