The innovations are designed to answer two of the major trends in the biomanufacturing industry at present - a move towards improving yields from bioreactors and increasingly stringent quality control requirements laid down by regulatory agencies.
The solutions are a cell line technology for antibody production, a media that improves the yield of plasmid DNA and a means of monitoring bioprocesses to make sure that conditions lend themselves to the best yields.
In the first instance, Morphotek has entered into an agreement with fellow US firm Tanox in a project aimed at improving the titres of therapeutic antibodies made in mammalian cells.
Morphotek has licensed Tanox its SIP technology, based on the suppression of two gene products in mammalian cells called Suppressor of Immunoglobulin Product-1 (SIP-1) and Suppressor of Immunoglobulin Product-7 (SIP-7). Research has demonstrated that suppression of SIP-1 and SIP-7 in antibody producing mammalian cells can lead to enhanced antibody production.
The genes were discovered by Morphotek researchers conducting comparative genomic studies of parental antibody manufacturing cell lines and high-titre derivatives developed using the company's proprietary Morphodoma in vivo technology that generates new variants of hybridoma and transfectoma cells.
Meanwhile, Nature Technology has launched a new fermentation media - called HyperGRO - designed to improve the yield of plasmid DNA from
DNA production methods use a bacterium, such as Escherichia coli, to produce from a few milligrams to a hundred or more milligrams of highly purified DNA molecules per litre of fermentation media. Using HyperGRO, Nature Technology has achieved 400mg/L, approximately double the previously reported record.
Finally, in the area of process control, Target Discovery is to work with Groton Biosystems on the development of a new range of capillary electrophoresis analysis systems for applications in online and laboratory process monitoring of protein production.
The vision is to develop real-time production monitoring that can improve the yield from bioreactors, lot-to-lot consistency and productivity. To address this, the two companies are aiming to provide instruments that can provide reliable and rapid analysis of complex protein mixtures.