Figure 1.

Cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) platforms allow for increased flexibility and shortened process timelines to create a variety of high-value recombinant proteins. This technology provides platforms from numerous organisms with varied complexity to meet the needs of the specific target proteins. CFPS also decouples catalyst synthesis and catalyst usage, traditionally interconnected during in vivo recombinant protein production schemes. For CFPS, catalyst synthesis involves cell growth, cell lysis, and extract processing that removes genomic DNA to create crude extract. The crude extract may be frozen for future use or used directly for catalyst usage. This process requires NTPs, DNA, amino acids, and an energy source to produce various proteins with applications in the synthetic biology field.