Episomal DNA Vectors: Minicircles

The Minicircle Technology from System Biosciences (SBI) is is a great option for gene expression. Produced as small, excised, circular DNA fragments from a parental plasmid, the non-viral, episomal Minicircle expression cassette is free of any bacterial plasmid DNA sequences and comes with a variety of promoter and reporter combinations. Featuring a smaller size, Minicircles facilitate more efficient transfection than standard-sized plasmids, and although they do not replicate in the host cell, expression lasts for 14 days or longer in dividing cells and can continue for months in non-dividing cells.

Benefits of using Minicircle technology
• Episomal expression sustained over weeks
• Foreign DNA-free
• Unlimited insert size
• Optimised coli minicircle production strain
• Effective in vitro and in vivo
• Choice of promoter, reporter gene and vector format

Generating minicircle DNA from the parental minicircle plasmid

Easy, sustained transfection in most cell types. Transfection of 1 μg of minicircle DNA (pMC.CMV-MCS-EF1-GFPSV40PolyA) into HEK293 cells delivers over one week of robust gene expression.

Please note: Parental minicircle plasmids and the ZYCY10P3S2T Producer Bacterial Strain are available for purchase by not-for-profit researchers only. Commercial users may purchase pre-made, ready-to-transfect minicircle DNA only. SBI also offers custom parental plasmid cloning and minicircle DNA production to both not-for-profit and commercial end users. Please contact our SBI specialists for additional details.

Material available for download
MC-Easy™ Minicircle Production Kit brochure

Minicircle citations