A breakthrough from the Hubrecht Institute and Oncode Institute is set to redefine how proteins are produced from mRNA offering new opportunities for biotech and pharmaceutical companies to enhance performance across a wide range of applications.
Researchers led by Marvin Tanenbaum (groupleader at Oncode Institute and Hubrecht Institute) have developed a novel platform technology known as the extended Translation Initiation Sequence (eTIS) with Bram Verhagen (PhD). Unlike the traditional Kozak sequence, which focuses on a narrow stretch of nucleotides, eTIS captures a much broader region around the start codon. This enables significantly more precise control over translation initiation, the critical first step in protein production.
By combining large-scale experimental data with a custom machine learning model, the team uncovered how approximately 80 nucleotides surrounding the start codon influence efficiency. This insight allows scientists to design optimized mRNA sequences independent of the encoded protein, making the approach broadly applicable.
Performance improvements are substantial. The technology delivers:
- Higher protein yields (typically 15–40%, up to 300% in some cases)
- Improved accuracy, reducing unwanted off-target protein products
- Enhanced translational fidelity, critical for therapeutic applications
Broad applications across biotech and pharma
The eTIS platform has immediate relevance for industries working with RNA and protein production, including:
- Recombinant protein and antibody manufacturing
- mRNA therapeutics and vaccines
- Gene therapy and synthetic biology
- Research reagents and in vivo expression technologies
Proof-of-concept studies have already demonstrated improved performance in existing commercial products.
For companies, this innovation offers a clear value proposition: more efficient production, lower costs, and faster development timelines.
By enabling predictable and optimized protein expression, eTIS reduces trial-and-error in development pipelines accelerating time-to-market and improving scalability.
The improvement in accuracy accomplished with this technology may also benefit patients treated with in-vivo CAR T technologies, significantly reducing the chances of out-of-frame and misfolded proteins.
Toward collaboration
This work stems from the doctoral research of Bram Verhagen under the leadership of Marvin Tanenbaum, whose group specializes in gene expression dynamics.
Marvin Tanenbaum, groupleader at Oncode Institute and Hubrecht Institute:
We’ve uncovered a fundamental layer of control in how proteins are made. With the discovery of the ‘extended translation initiation sequence (eTIS)’’, we can now design mRNA sequences with a level of precision that simply wasn’t possible before, opening the door to more efficient and reliable mRNA therapeutics.
Dana Koludrovic, Business Development Manager:
This technology offers immediate value for companies working with RNA and protein production. We are excited to collaborate with industrial partners to translate this scientific breakthrough into real-world applications and scalable solutions.
Interested in collaboration or licensing opportunities?
Oncode Institute invites biotech and industry partners to explore how eTIS can enhance their pipelines and unlock new efficiencies in protein expression.
A patent has been filed in 2025, and the team is actively seeking industrial partners for licensing and co-development.
Get in touch
Dana Koludrovic
Dana is a Business Developer at the Oncode institute since the start of 2024. For the first year she was based at the Oncode Accelerator, leading project evaluation and due diligence for preclinical and early clinical assets and providing strategic recommendations. Before joining Oncode, she worked as a Business Developer at Cancer Research Horizons, within the University of Birmingham Enterprise, supporting researchers at Universities of Birmingham, Nottingham, Sheffield, York for a period of five years, gaining knowledge and experience in licensing and spinout formation. Her experience at Cancer Research UK prior to transitioning to a business role involved drug development with AstraZeneca during her postdoctoral research at the Cancer Research UK Scotland Centre. Her background is molecular and cellular biology (BSc and MSc at the University of Zagreb), further focusing on cancer biology during her PhD at the University of Strasbourg. She currently supports the Oncode Investigators in all stages of project development and leads on all aspects of valorization strategy and translation activities, aimed at creating impact for patients.
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