The present invention is in the field of recombinant biotechnology, in particular in the field of protein expression. The invention generally relates to methods of increasing the expression level of a protein of interest of a bacterial host cell in a production process. The invention relates particularly to improving the capacity of a bacterial host cell to express a protein of interest by expressing a phage protein during the production process which inhibits growth of the bacterial host cell. Decoupling growth of the bacterial host cell of manufacturing of the protein of interest during the production process reduces (i) the metabolic burden, (ii) oxygen demand, (iii) metabolic heat development, and (iv) avoids stress response caused by heterologous protein expression and thereby increases the capacity of a host cell to produce the protein of interest. The present invention also relates to uses of the host cell for protein expression, cell culture technology, and more specifically to culturing host cells to produce a protein of interest.