About PEF

The Protein Expression Facility (PEF) is Australia’s leading protein research facility with an excellent track record that specialises in recombinant protein production for both academic and industry researchers.

Founded in 2004 at the University of Queensland, PEF incorporates state-of-the-art facilities and a team of highly skilled research specialists that possess an extensive knowledge and expertise in protein expression and purification. In recognition for its long-standing commitment and outstanding contribution to the research community, PEF has been awarded the 2016 UQ Award for Excellence in Service and the Chancellor's Award for Team Excellence in 2013.

PEF delivers quality proteins for diverse applications in the areas of structural biology and chemistry, drug screening and discovery, vaccine development and delivery, protein therapeutics, functionalised material, biomedical imaging and agricultural science. It is the only protein facility in Australia offering expression services in E. coli, yeast, baculovirus-insect cell, mammalian cell and eukaryotic cell-freeLeishmania tarentolae. By utilising a rapid and flexible protein production pipeline, the facility streamlines molecular cloning, protein expression and protein purification while delivering an industry-competitive turnaround time. The pipeline provides flexibility and freedom to users to enter and leave the production process as they decide.

The facility has a training program for research staff and students to develop technical skills in protein expression and purification. Trained staff and students can access our facility to conduct their protein production. For enquiries on our training program and access to our facility please contact us.

PEF provides high quality materials and know-how to the University of Queensland users. Custom vectors and reagents for cloning, expression and purification are available.

The PEF Advantage

Robust protein production pipeline providing flexibility to users
High quality proteins for diverse applications
Cost-effective services with an industry-competitive turnaround time
Comprehensive scientific reports
Responsive, collaborative customer service

View our profile and connect with us!

PEF is proud to be an invited international partner in the Protein Production and Purification Partnership in Europe (P4EU). This network initiative was started in 2010 to improve service outcomes for user groups. The P4EU aims include:

Sharing and exchange of information, protocols and material
Access to new technologies
Developing and/or evaluating new or emerging technologies
Establishing standards for protein related work
Enabling collaboration between users
Training of users

For more information, please visit our network's web site at www.structuralbiology.eu/networks/p4eu

Testimonials

Professor Lars Nielsen (AIBN)

Dr Jane Cardosa - Sentinext Therapeutics

Sherman Leung - Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences UQ

The UQ Protein Expression Facility produced a recombinant human protein for in vivo and in vitro experiments in my research. My experience with them was fantastic. Staff were professional, scientifically rigorous, and clear with communication. I have no issue recommending their services for the production of your protein of interest.

Sherman Leung

Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

The University of Queensland

Professor Stephen Mahler - AIBN

Ms Kathryn Hjerrild - Faculty of Health, Deakin University

Dr Maggie Hardy - Institute for Molecular Bioscience

Dr Tony Velkov - Monash University

Dr Tim Mahony - Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation

While PEF has excellent experience in a number of expression systems, its greatest strength is the capacity to work directly with the person who is managing my projects. This approach recognises that there is no one shoe fits all in protein expression and therefore increases the likelihood of success'.

Dr Tim Mahony

Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation

The University of Queensland

Dr Brett Collins - Institute for Molecular Bioscience

Our recent work has required us to develop methods for producing larger heteromeric protein complexes in recombinant form for biophysical, functional and structural studies. As our proteins are eukaryotic (mostly human) this means using either insect or mammalian cells for large scale expression due to poor yields using bacterial systems. Our recent experience with PEF has been great, and Cindy and Linda have provided some excellent advice and great service, especially for the use of new expi293 mammalian cells for high level expression. This has already resulted in the production of one large (150 kDa) heteromeric complex that we have been able to purify for structural studies. We imagine using this service again in the future, and also making use of PEF facilities to train postdocs and students for recombinant protein production.

Dr Brett Collins

Institute for Molecular Bioscience

The University of Queensland

Dr Kate Schroder - Institute for Molecular Bioscience

Professor Anton Middelberg - AIBN

Dr Chris Marquis - The University of NSW

Michael Grant - Q-Sera

Dr Conny Turni - Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation

Dr Robert Burton - PATH

Professor Kirill Alexandrov - AIBN/IMB

Dr Kar-Chun Tan - Curtin University

Professor Michael Holland - Faculty of Science UQ

Associate Professor John Hooper - Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences UQ

Associate Professor Mark Coulthard - Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences UQ

The Protein Expression Facility recently prepared 60mg of a specific Fc-protein for our animal experiments on vascular leak in septic shock. We provided the plasmid and PEF did all the work with a turnaround time of about a week. When the protein was ready we received a courteous email with details of the preparation and concentration – in fact PEF asked us to tell them “what was the most convenient concentration for our experiments?” Lastly the production cost was very reasonable.

Associate Professor Mark Coulthard

Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

The University of Queensland

About PEF

The PEF Advantage

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Testimonials

Professor Lars Nielsen (AIBN)

'Considering our labour costs, the high-throughput quick turn-around service provided by PEF is cost-effective'.

Dr Jane Cardosa - Sentinext Therapeutics

'PEF has helped us enormously in method development for characterising our enterovirus 71 VLPs using state-of-the-art AF4 technology, thus allowing Sentinext Therapeutics to enter the field with confidence about the stability and integrity of our superious EV71 VLP vaccine'.

Sherman Leung - Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences UQ

Professor Stephen Mahler - AIBN

'We are impressed with the professionalism, quality and cost effectiveness of work which has been performed'.

Ms Kathryn Hjerrild - Faculty of Health, Deakin University

I have been purchasing Leishmania LTE extract from PEF at UQ for over a year. Communication with the facility has been excellent and all shipments have arrived in perfect condition in a timely manner.

Dr Maggie Hardy - Institute for Molecular Bioscience

'Our contacts at PEF were on the cutting edge of their field. They had the most information about the vectors, expression systems and were aware of the intellectual property surrounding each construct. The staff were knowledgeable, helpful and a pleasure to work alongside'.

Dr Tony Velkov - Monash University

'PEF provided us with purified and active proteins to meet our groups project milestones and grant deadlines on time, every time!'

Dr Tim Mahony - Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation

Dr Brett Collins - Institute for Molecular Bioscience

Dr Kate Schroder - Institute for Molecular Bioscience

We use PEF to generate recombinant growth factors for immune cell differentiation. PEF provides a fast and professional service to produce high-quality, active protein at competitive prices.

Professor Anton Middelberg - AIBN

'PEF knows proteins, inside and out'.

Dr Chris Marquis - The University of NSW

The PEF provides an excellent service. Their staff are efficient and very knowledgeable. I would definitely recommend them to provide services for creating vectors for protein expression.

Michael Grant - Q-Sera

PEF has been a valuable partner, working closely with our R&D team to optimise and scale-up our lead recombinant protein. Always professional, with an excellent standard of reporting and documentation.

Dr Conny Turni - Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation

'Their dedication and teamwork made it possible to keep to a tight schedule. They delivered the purified product in the agreed time frame and provided excellent reports including methods, results and discussion'.

Dr Robert Burton - PATH

'This is certainly beautiful work you have done. Very high quality. We very much appreciate your effort to provide such detailed analysis of the purification process'.

Professor Kirill Alexandrov - AIBN/IMB

'We value PEF as a facility with unparalleled skill set. The facility is very well managed and flexible in the way it interacts with customers. We highly recommend the facility to other users'.

Dr Kar-Chun Tan - Curtin University

'I highly recommend PEF for large-scale protein expression. Their service is impeccable with an excellent project turn-around time and good quality products'.

Professor Michael Holland - Faculty of Science UQ

'PEF helped me clone and express glycoproteins in a system which maximised their immunogenicity and retained their biological function. This was a crucial step in the development of the immunocontraceptive vaccine for cattle'.

Associate Professor John Hooper - Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences UQ

We recently approached the UQ PEF about purification of recombinant proteins that we had stably expressed from mammalian cells. The advice we received has been spot on in every respect - timely, cost effective and, most importantly, resulted in success!

Associate Professor Mark Coulthard - Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences UQ