Bioprocess Engineering of Animal Cells

Our in-house developed stable recombinant cell lines are tested in various bioprocess operation modes, including (fed-)batch- and continuous strategies. This allows us to to get detailed insight about significant process parameters responsible for product yield and quality.

Experimental design (DoE) in small scale models in tube spin reactors are implemented in our process development strategy to enable statistical evaluation of critical process parameters and relate them to critical quality attributes of the protein of interest. The results are tested in lab scale fermentation in glas- (Minifors, DASGIP) and single-use (XDR-10, WAVE) bioreactors. 

Strictly controlled bioprocesses are the basis for all kinds of investigations dealing with the cellular status of the culture as well as the expressed protein represented by the secretion rate and the quality attributes.

Animal cell factory design

The development of recombinant production clones depends on the protein of interest and its complexity, the gene transfer vehicle and the potential of the host cell line.

Our approach is to develop a network of knowledge and techniques to provide adequate production cell lines for human therapeutics. We engineer various highly complex proteins to identify bottlenecks of expression and product quality on a cellular- and molecular level. The list of our model proteins includes antibodies of different isoforms like humanized IgGs, human IgMs and IgAs, hormones like human growth hormone or fusion proteins like EpoFc, albumin tagged human CD19 and the trimeric SARS-CoV2 spike protein.

In our daily research activities we carefully combine genetic, protein- and cellular engineering approaches together with proper analytical tools. Starting from the design of the genetic material for the recombinant protein of interest we expand techniques to establish producer cell lines and high-quality master cell banks. Both product quantity and critical quality attributes are carefully evaluated in course of all developmental stages.