Tag: <span>vaccine production</span>

Adventitious Virus Contamination Testing: Massively Parallel Sequencing in a Multimodal Solution for Biopharmaceutical Safety Testing

Virus contamination of commercially valued cell cultures can be a health risk to the general population and imposes financial burdens on manufacturing and biopharmaceutical companies. We investigated the use of massively parallel sequencing/next-generation sequencing (MPS/NGS) and bioinformatics for the detection and subsequent identification of adventitious contamination. Specifically, the Illumina® HiSeq 2000 instrument, in the 2 × 100 base pair (bp) paired end (PE) run configuration, was used to determine the identity and limit of detection of a DNA virus spiked into a virus vaccine, and an RNA virus spiked into a mammalian master cell bank (MCB). This configuration provided sufficient sequence read lengths and depth of coverage to detect and identify spiked-in SV40 and measles viruses in a background of vaccine, MCB, and host nucleic acid that make up the bulk of these samples. Furthermore, the detection of 30 SV40 reads within one tested sample suggested a < 1 plaque forming unit (pfu) sensitivity in a background of 2.8 × 107 infectious adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad5) particles. Results from subsequent virus vaccine testing suggested the presence of non-viable virus DNA contamination in the sample. Therefore, we propose that a multimodal approach, in which broad-range screening for known or unknown adventitious agents by MPS/NGS is complemented by targeted virus detection assays (e.g., PCR-based and infectivity assays), should provide the most useful safety monitoring information. We suggest that MPS/NGS and the accompanying bioinformatics is a sensitive, broad-range, and long-lasting tool with the ability to improve upon existing biosafety testing within a larger testing program…

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Biologics Production

bioinformatics cell culture dna contamination host cell proteins mammalian cell bank massively parallel sequencing master cell bank mcb measles virus next generation sequencing PCR plaque forming unit SV40 vaccine production vaccines viral contaminants virus contamination virus detection assays virus spikes

Spinning Out: From Concept to Actualization

ExpreS2ion, established in January 2010, is located in the Hørsholm Science Park, north of Copenhagen. It was formed as a spin-out from Affitech A/S (Affitech) which holds an equity position in the company. ExpreS2ion operates as a contract research organization (CRO) offering services related to vector and cell line development, cloning, upstream development, optimization, and production of GLP material using its S2 (Drosophila Schneider 2) cell-based ExpreS2 platform. Two of the company’s founders, Drs. de Jongh and Dyring, and early employees of ExpreS2ion were colleagues for many years at Affitech and Pharmexa A/S (Pharmexa) before the two companies combined. It was during this period that they developed and optimized a S2 expression system for use in the production of therapeutic vaccines. ExpreS2ion’s proprietary protein expression platform, ExpreS2, consists of high-yielding expression vectors, a S2 cell line that grows to higher cell densities than standard S2 cells, an optimized culture media, and a highly efficient transfection reagent specifically optimized for S2 cells…

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Biologics Production

cell line development drosophila s2 drosophila schneider 2 glp material life sciences protein expression therapeutic vaccines therapeutics vaccine production vectors

Rapid and Effective Monitoring of Baculovirus Concentrations in Bioprocess Fluid Using the ViroCyt® Virus Counter®

The licensing of recombinant vaccines produced using the baculovirus expression vector system (BEVS) has cleared the way for the production of a variety of biopharmaceuticals produced using this technology. Obtaining accurate estimates of both total and infectious baculovirus titer in upstream and downstream bioprocess fluids is one of many process controls that will need to be addressed during the development phase of a product’s lifecycle. Traditional plaque-titer methods require 5–7 days of incubation in order to reveal plaques that may be enumerated, and is further complicated by plaques created by multiple viruses that may be scored as a single plaque, thereby lowering the titer estimate. Titer assays based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) have been developed, but they measure the presence of baculovirus genes, not virus particles. This often results in titers one or two logs higher than the actual titer. Immunoassays correlate with host cell infection and virus replication, but they too can be time-consuming and difficult to interpret. Our goal was to identify a method that would provide estimates of both total and infectious virus particles in as close to real-time as possible. We have evaluated the ViroCyt Virus Counter over the course of three years and have found it to provide accurate and reproducible estimates of both titer types in as little as 30 minutes. We have created an algorithm that converts total virus particle counts into estimates of infectious titer and tested these values in virus amplifications. The Virus Counter method of titer determination has also been used to track the quantity of virus particles in the culture supernatant of stirred-tank bioreactors infected with standard baculovirus stocks and with baculovirus-infected insect cells (BIIC)…

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Biologics Production

baculovirus express system baculovirus expression system baculovirus titer baculovirus vector BEVS biologics biopharmaceutical manufacturing biopharmaceuticals cell counting cell culture cgmp immunoassays insect cell culture recombinant vaccines vaccine production viral titer virocyt

Optimising Vaccine Process Scale-Up of Attachment-Dependent Cells Using Micro Bioreactors and Microcarriers

The trend for increased vaccine production is being driven by the requirement to produce affordable prophylactic vaccines for use in emerging markets, and also for newer types of therapeutic vaccines to treat an ever-increasing array of diseases such as cancer. These drivers, coupled with the current need to produce vaccines rapidly for pandemic threats and seasonal influenza prevention, has lead to the investigation of rapid method development for optimising the scale-up of cGMP-compliant manufacturing processes…

Read MoreOptimising Vaccine Process Scale-Up of Attachment-Dependent Cells Using Micro Bioreactors and Microcarriers

Biologics Production

attachment-dependent cells biologics biopharmaceutical manufacturing cell culture cgmp microbioreactor microcarriers pandemic threats process scale-up therapeutic vaccines vaccine production