Type 2 diabetes is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease-related morbidity and mortality. There are several therapies for type 2 diabetes management, but optimal glycemic control has not been achieved yet. A large number of patients fail to attain an ideal glycemic target, and only a few drugs have demonstrated effective control of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) numbers below 7%. The biggest hurdles for implementing long-term, effective therapies are hypoglycemia and weight gain. Most pharmaceuticals currently available act to increase insulin availability through administration, secretion, or by increasing insulin sensitivity. Others act by delaying the delivery and absorption of carbohydrates from the gastrointestinal (GI) tract or by increasing urinary glucose excretion.
BioProcessing Journal Posts
Cells cultured in 2D can differ in terms of both physiology and cellular responses compared with cells in vivo. This has led to a surge in the popularity of using 3D culture techniques as mounting evidence suggests that culturing cells in 3D is more representative of the in vivo environment, even to the extent that the gene expression profiles of cells from 3D cultures more accurately reflect clinical expression profiles than those observed in 2D cultures. 3D culture offers the potential for more accurate models of drug delivery and efficacy, as well as numerous clinical and research applications, and is becoming increasingly capable of integrating into high-throughput activities. Spheroids, or sphere cultures, have become an especially exciting area of 3D in vitro culture due to their great potential for use in studies that investigate growth and function of both malignant and normal tissues. These sphere cultures have contributed considerably to our knowledge of cellular responses thanks to the accuracy with which they reflect the in vivo system.
Polysaccharide-based vaccines are widely used to protect against Streptococcus pneumoniae (S. pneumoniae) infections in infants and the elderly. However, their use is limited by strain specificity, which restricts both their geographical and economical utility. There is an urgent need for protein-based vaccines that are likely to provide broader, more economical protection against the global burden of pneumococcal disease. In this paper, we describe the pre-clinical development of a multi-subunit protein vaccine that can be manufactured efficiently and economically to meet this need. Genetically engineered Streptococcus pneumoniae TIGR4 B7.1 PlyD6 cell substrate was constructed to deliver non-toxic Ply.
The production of biopharmaceutical drugs typically involves a biological expression within a bacterial, yeast, or mammalian cell expansion system. Getting to the final product requires multiple purification steps, from primary clarification to the final formulation and sterile filtration. The aim of the initial purification steps is not to purify the stream perfectly but rather, to prepare the stream for finer and more specific purification steps further downstream. Apart from efficiently removing contaminants, the clarification stages also need to maintain high product recovery whilst being consistent and robust.
Biopharmaceutical manufacturing will continue to be increasingly challenging as medical knowledge and understanding rapidly advance. Many new therapies and products will utilize cellular, viral, genetic, and epigenetic approaches along with a repertoire of increasingly complex proteins targeting a rapidly increasing inventory of newly discovered biomarkers. Manufacturing these products efficiently, consistently, and reliably will require sophisticated manufacturing approaches, methods, and controls. In addition, growing patient, societal, and even regulatory pressures demand that new therapeutics be developed and manufactured quickly, reliably, and efficiently.
Biopharmaceutical manufacturing will continue to be increasingly challenging as medical knowledge and understanding rapidly advance. Many new therapies and products will utilize cellular, viral, genetic, and epigenetic approaches along with a repertoire of increasingly complex proteins targeting a rapidly increasing inventory of newly discovered biomarkers. Manufacturing these products efficiently, consistently, and reliably will require sophisticated manufacturing approaches, methods, and controls. In addition, growing patient, societal, and even regulatory pressures demand that new therapeutics be developed and manufactured quickly, reliably, and efficiently. Historically, manufacturing has been viewed and managed in terms of minimizing patient safety risks.
Rocker bag bioreactors have been used successfully in cultivating cells because they provide good nutrient distribution and cell suspension while eliminating the need to validate cleaning and sterilization. Therefore, this study examined the long-term performance of a 50 L single-use bag bioreactor on a rocking platform in CB.Hep-1 monoclonal antibody (mAb) production. For such a purpose, the bioreactor was operated in a continuous mode with a mixture of serum-free media (SFM) for 62 days, and with protein-free medium (PFM) for another 62 days…
The impact of viruses—in geopolitical human health issues, in the production of vaccines and recombinant proteins, and in gene therapy and cancer treatments—highlights the need for a better understanding of the systems that are dependent upon them. A primary barrier to recognizing the full potential of these life-saving biomedical approaches is the scarcity of analytical methods capable of providing biologically relevant information without hindering the pace of development and production. ViroCyt® is a Colorado-based biotechnology company with one overriding focus: Enabling the rapid and specific quantification of viruses and virus-related particles. The ViroCyt Virus Counter® was designed to meet this objective.
This article reports the average titers and yields currently attained with commercially manufactured biopharmaceuticals expressed by microbial systems such as E. coli and yeasts. A recent BioProcessing Journal article comparably covered results from the first phase of this study concerning historical titers and yields attained for commercial-scale biopharmaceutical production using mammalian cells (e.g., CHO). As with this prior mammalian component, public domain data concerning titers and yields attained with microbially manufactured products were obtained using all available sources.
Two cell disruption methods, mechanical and chemical, were applied for the recovery of a fusion protein named CIGB 550-E7, expressed on Escherichia coli grown in defined saline media. A comparison of the methods was done, and various operating parameters for each technique were optimized to obtain the maximum disruption efficiency and CIGB 550-E7 protein release. The mechanical disruption’s yield and recovery were 1.24 and 1.37 times higher than those obtained with chemical disruption. Modified conditions were assayed for the CIGB 550-E7 obtained by chemically defined media using the mechanical and chemical cell disruption methods.