Cell-free protein synthesis system

Cell-free protein synthesis systems have originally been developed as a technology for the biochemical analysis of translation or the in vitro protein preparation. More recently, these systems have been applied to synthetic biology research such as the reconstruction of the artificial cell. We have developed a reconstituted cell-free protein synthesis system (PURE system; Protein synthesis Using Recombinant Elements system), which is composed of individually purified ribosome and translational enzymes. This article summarizes the construction and application of the cell-free protein synthesis system, focusing on the PURE system.