The treatment of animal serum by gamma irradiation, for the purpose of mitigating the risk of introducing a pathogen (virus, mollicute, or other microbe) into a cell culture, is a process that has been executed (and perhaps understood) primarily by irradiation contractors utilized by serum manufacturers. The selection of appropriate exposure conditions and irradiation doses is driven by a number of critical factors including: (1) the validation and control of the irradiation process itself; (2) the efficacy of the applied irradiation dose range for inactivating pathogens of interest; (3) determination and control of critical process attributes; (4) the potential impacts of these irradiation dose levels on the serum being irradiated; and finally, (5) the potential impact of irradiated serum on the medicinal product and the associated manufacturing process where serum is ultimately used. In order to increase awareness of these topics throughout the cell culture community, we have addressed these critical factors in the current review…
Category: <span>Viral Reference Materials</span>
Biologics Biologics Production Bioreactor Scale-Up Cell & Gene Therapy Cell Lines Fed-Batch Bioreactor Process HEK293 Mammalian Cell Culture Manufacturing Regulatory Viral Reference Materials Viral Vectors
abattoir albumin animal serum animal-derived materials antibody biomedical research blood-derived products calf serum calicivirus cell culture cell medium challenge virus design of efficacy dose mapping fbs fetal bovine serum gamma irradiation heat inactivation isia kgy kilogray microbes mollicute nbcs pathogen reduction product management risk mitigation serum product serum risks spiked serum therapeutic proteins traceability viral reduction whole blood
This article serves as an introduction to a series of papers that are being authored under the sponsorship of the International Serum Industry Association with the purpose of establishing best practices for processes employed in the gamma irradiation of animal serum. It is comprised of a discussion about the role of serum in cell culture and the management of the associated risks. Additional articles in the series will address a number of topics of interest to the cell culture community, including, but not limited to: (1) performance of absorbed dose mapping for irradiators; (2) validation of the efficacy of pathogen reduction during gamma irradiation of animal serum; (3) comparability evaluation of irradiated serum; (4) product management throughout the irradiation process; and (5) ensuring a quality outcome when using gamma irradiation. The intent of the series is to increase awareness of the scientific community regarding the conduct of gamma irradiation and the strengths and limitations of this serum treatment approach for achieving the goals of adventitious agent risk mitigation.
Biologics Biologics Production Bioreactor Scale-Up Cell & Gene Therapy Cell Lines Fed-Batch Bioreactor Process HEK293 Mammalian Cell Culture Manufacturing Regulatory Viral Reference Materials Viral Vectors
abattoir albumin animal serum animal-derived materials biomedical research blood-derived products calf serum cell culture cell medium dose mapping fbs fetal bovine serum gamma irradiation heat inactivation isia nbcs pathogen reduction product management risk mitigation serum risks therapeutic proteins traceability whole blood
Acetyl-4, 4′-diapolycopene-4, 4′-dioate, a C30 carotenoid and secondary metabolite, was produced by the Sporosarcina aquimarina bacteria using a 5.0 L fermentation vessel with a 3.0 L working volume. In the presence of tryptone, the biosynthesis of acetyl-4, 4′-diapolycopene-4, 4′-dioate production using a batch fermentation process was further improved. Production parameters like carbon source, pH, and temperature were studied, and maximum product was achieved, up to 1.2 g/L, where the secondary metabolite yield was 0.07 g/L and productivity, 0.00833 g/L/h. The organic constitution and significant red color intensity of the acetyl-4, 4′-diapolycopene-4, 4′-dioate molecule can be used in the textile industry as a dye, and a coloring additive in processed foods and pharmaceuticals.
Numerous standardized techniques for detection and quantification of proteins are based on polyclonal antibody (pAb) use. However, because pAbs are a heterogeneous mixture of antibodies, there is the possibility of non-specific interactions or cross-reactions with non-related proteins, which is a disadvantage in the detection and quantification of target proteins. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to generate and characterize monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) for quantifying the Vip3Aa20 protein of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) expressed in event MIR162 transgenic corn plant.
Over the last few years, the challenges of vaccine development have created perhaps an unprecedented level of scrutiny, not just within the biotech industry, but also in the consciousness of the general public. This was certainly the case during the recent H1N1 influenza outbreak. The demand to know when a vaccine would be available, and if producers could meet the global demands consistently made front page news. The challenge of rapid and scalable manufacture is of course nothing new in biopharmaceutical development and in many respects, monoclonal antibodies are leading the way as the industry moves towards the required level of industrialization.
An interesting situation occurred ten years ago in an industry where quality had been the critical factor in management decision-making. Quality was abruptly bumped to second place behind pricing, which started a global rush to find lower-cost suppliers and eventually resulted in massive outsourcing. During this evolution, the importance of quality systems for the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical community was recognized by regulatory agencies that began establishing risk management standards.
With increasing time pressures to move biological therapeutics into the clinic, bioprocessing development studies have to be limited. Currently, core studies typically involve the use of shake flasks and benchtop bioreactors to select the most productive clones, optimum media, and bioprocessing conditions. The capacity for using benchtop bioreactors is especially limited as it is resource-intensive and has high capital equipment and infrastructure costs. Consequently, scientists frequently cannot perform full design-of-experiments (DoE) and are generally only able to take one or two of their most promising clones forward for partial DoE runs in benchtop bioreactors.
The rapidly growing interest for cell and gene therapies demands the development of robust, scalable, and cost-effective bioprocesses for viral vector production. For the production of lentiviral vector (LVV) at high titers, we have developed an inducible packaging system in suspension HEK293 cells from which we can also generate stable producer cell lines, in serum-free conditions. To evaluate the potential of this platform, we have generated a stable cell line that produces an LVV encoding a green fluorescent protein (GFP) and obtains 10E+07 to 10E+08 transduction units (TU)/mL at the 4 L, 10 L and 50 L scales. Functional LVV titers were maintained across all scales in bioreactors with different configurations and geometries indicating process robustness. Further, the addition of 10% feed increased the volumetric productivity by 3.5-fold in comparison to batch production, making our platform suitable for large-scale LVV production and showing a real potential for commercial manufacturing.
The heterogenous group of advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) are biologics with frequently limited viral safety profiles. As compared to well-established biologics such as monoclonal antibody products, the risk of virus contamination is significantly higher for some ATMPs. The standard approaches and tools used to mitigate the viral risk have limitations, leaving open the chances of missing virus contamination in an ATMP manufacturing process in both upstream and downstream. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology can overcome the residual risk by having the potential to detect any kind of virus contamination based on its inherent capability to detect any kind of nucleic acid in a sample. It perfectly combines the benefits and compensates for the downsides of the existing testing tools. It will replace a bunch of different established testing methods at improved turnaround times and, in the end, reduced overall costs. The combination of these characteristics is making NGS-based virus testing an in-demand and preferred approach to mitigating the virus contamination risk across all kinds of biologics mid- and long-term.
Recombinant adeno-associated viral (rAAV) vectors have proven to be efficient vehicles for gene transfer in animal models. The attractive features of this vector system are long-term gene expression with little or no associated toxicities following administration to a variety of tissues. Previous and ongoing clinical trials in humans demonstrate a very good over-all safety profile. However, one of the caveats of this work that has been carried out by several laboratories is the inability to normalize vector doses administered by different investigators to animals and humans. Most of the work to date has involved AAV serotype2 vectors, but vector systems based on other AAV serotypes are being rapidly developed…