Patent ID: 8527211

Claim:
A method for predicting the expression efficiency for recombinant production of a protein by prokaryotic cells, the method comprising the steps of: a) providing a mRNA sequence which codes for the protein to be produced, wherein said mRNA includes a translation initiation region (TIR); b) predicting a secondary structures for a 5′ region of said mRNA by a computer program executed on a computer; c) estimating the probability of said mRNA structure; d) calculating the fraction of unfolded TIR for said mRNA structure according to: F u = 1 exp ⁡ ( - δ ⁢ ⁢ G TIR _ Tk ) + 1 in which Fu is fraction of unfolded TIR, δGTIR is free energy of TIR (kcal/mole), T is the absolute temperature and k is the Boltzmann constant (0.001986266 kcal/mole/degree K); e) calculating probability of unfolded TIR in said mRNA sequence based on: P u =P S ×F u in which P u is probability of unfolded TIR, P S is said probability of mRNA structure (of step c) and Fu is said fraction of unfolded TIR for said structure of step d; and linking said probability of unfolded TIR (of step e) with predetermined expression Efficiencies.