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A rapid and cost-effective transient transfection method for mammalian cells is essential for screening biopharmaceuticals in early stages of development. A library of 25 amphipathic trans-acting oligodeoxythymidine phosphorothioate triester (dTtaPS) transfection reagents, carrying positively charged and lipophilic groups, has been constructed for this purpose. High-throughput screening of the library, using an imaging cytometer and an automated microbioreactor system, has led to the identification of dTtaPS 10+ as a potent transfection reagent. This reagent efficiently delivers a plasmid encoding enhanced green fluorescent protein in adherent HeLa cells while exhibiting low cytotoxicity. The microbioreactor system has been particularly useful for assessing the ability of dTtaPS 10+ to deliver a plasmid encoding immunoglobulin IgG1 in a fed-batch serum-free suspension CHO cell culture; dTtaPS 10+ -mediated transfection resulted in the production of IgG1 in yields comparable to or better than those obtained with commercial lipid-based transfection reagents under similar conditions. The ability of dTtaPS 10+ to deliver plasmids is essentially unaffected by the presence of a silicone-based antifoaming reagent, which is commonly used in bioreactor cell cultures. The transfection efficiency of lyophilized dTtaPS 10+ -plasmid complexes has been significantly restored upon aqueous reconstitution when compared to that achieved while using commercial transfection reagent complexes under similar conditions. The results of all experiments underscore the potential of dTtaPS 10+ for transient transfection of plasmids into adherent cells and fed-batch serum-free suspension CHO cells and rapid screening of reagents in a microbioreactor system., (© 2017 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.)

There has been a recent drive in commercial large-scale production of biotechnology products to convert current batch mode processing to continuous processing manufacturing. There have been reports of model systems capable of adapting and linking upstream and downstream technologies into a continuous manufacturing pipeline. However, in many of these proposed continuous processing model systems, viral safety has not been comprehensively addressed. Viral safety and detection is a highly important and often expensive regulatory requirement for any new biological product. To ensure success in the adaption of continuous processing to large-scale production, there is a need to consider the development of approaches that allow for seamless incorporation of viral testing and clearance/inactivation methods. In this review, we outline potential strategies to apply current viral testing and clearance/inactivation technologies to continuous processing, as well as modifications of existing unit operations to ensure the successful integration of viral clearance into the continuous processing of biological products. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2017;114: 21-32. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., (© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Linkage of upstream cell culture with downstream processing and purification is an aspect of Quality by Design crucial for efficient and consistent production of high quality biopharmaceutical proteins. In a previous Plackett-Burman screening study of parallel bioreactor cultures we evaluated main effects of 11 process variables, such as agitation, sparge rate, feeding regimens, dissolved oxygen set point, inoculation density, supplement addition, temperature, and pH shifts. In this follow-up study, we observed linkages between cell culture process parameters and downstream capture chromatography performance and subsequent antibody attributes. In depth analysis of the capture chromatography purification of harvested cell culture fluid yielded significant effects of upstream process parameters on host cell protein abundance and behavior. A variety of methods were used to characterize the antibody both after purification and buffer formulation. This analysis provided insight in to the significant impacts of upstream process parameters on aggregate formation, impurities, and protein structure. This report highlights the utility of linkage studies in identifying how changes in upstream parameters can impact downstream critical quality attributes. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 33:163-170, 2017., (© 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers.)

Consistent high-quality antibody yield is a key goal for cell culture bioprocessing. This endpoint is typically achieved in commercial settings through product and process engineering of bioreactor parameters during development. When the process is complex and not optimized, small changes in composition and control may yield a finished product of less desirable quality. Therefore, changes proposed to currently validated processes usually require justification and are reported to the US FDA for approval. Recently, design-of-experiments-based approaches have been explored to rapidly and efficiently achieve this goal of optimized yield with a better understanding of product and process variables that affect a product's critical quality attributes. Here, we present a laboratory-scale model culture where we apply a Plackett-Burman screening design to parallel cultures to study the main effects of 11 process variables. This exercise allowed us to determine the relative importance of these variables and identify the most important factors to be further optimized in order to control both desirable and undesirable glycan profiles. We found engineering changes relating to culture temperature and nonessential amino acid supplementation significantly impacted glycan profiles associated with fucosylation, β-galactosylation, and sialylation. All of these are important for monoclonal antibody product quality., (© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. and the American Pharmacists Association.)

In this study, we perform mass transfer characterization (k(L) a) on a novel mechanically driven/stirred Process Scouting Device, PSD, (SuperSpinner D 1000®, SSD) and demonstrate that this novel device can be viewed as disposable bioreactor. Using patch-based optical sensors, we were able to monitor critical cell culture environmental conditions such as dissolved oxygen (DO) and pH in SSD for comparison to a 1 L standard spinner (SS) flask. We also coupled these mass transfer studies with mixing time studies where we observed relative high mixing times (5.2 min) that are typically observed in production scale bioreactors. Decreasing the mixing time 3.5-fold resulted in 30% increase in k(L) a (from 2.3 to 3.0 h(-1) ) and minimum DO level increased from 0% to 20% for our model hybridoma cell line. Finally, maximum viable cell density and protein titer stayed within ±20% of historical data, from our standard 5 L stirred bioreactor (Biostat®) operated under active DO control., (Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

During the past decade, novel disposable cell culture vessels (generally referred to as Process Scouting Devices or PSDs) have become increasingly popular for laboratory scale studies and seed culture generation. However, the lack of engineering characterization and online monitoring tools for PSDs makes it difficult to elucidate their oxygen transfer capabilities. In this study, a mass transfer characterization (k(L)a) of sensor enabled static and rocking T-flasks is presented and compared with other non-instrumented PSDs such as CultiFlask 50®, spinner flasks, and SuperSpinner D 1000®. We have also developed a mass transfer empirical correlation that accounts for the contribution of convection and diffusion to the volumetric mass transfer coefficient (k(L)a) in rocking T-flasks. We also carried out a scale-down study at matched k(L) a between a rocking T75-flask and a 10 L (2 L filling volume) wave bioreactor (Cultibag®) and we observed similar DO and pH profiles as well as maximum cell density and protein titer. However, in this scale-down study, we also observed a negative correlation between cell growth and protein productivity between the rocking T-flask and the wave bioreactor. We hypothesize that this negative correlation can be due to hydrodynamic stress difference between the rocking T-flask and the Cultibag. As both cell culture devices share key similarities such as type of agitation (i.e., rocking), oxygen transfer capabilities (i.e., k(L)a) and disposability, we argue that rocking T-flasks can be readily integrated with wave bioreactors, making the transition from research-scale to manufacturing-scale a seamless process., (Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Effective clone selection is a crucial step toward developing a robust mammalian cell culture production platform. Currently, clone selection is done by culturing cells in well plates and picking the highest producers. Ideally, clone selection should be done in a stirred tank bioreactor as this would best replicate the eventual production environment. The actual number of clones selected for future evaluation in bioreactors at bench-scale is limited by the scale-up and operational costs involved. This study describes the application of miniaturized stirred high-throughput bioreactors (35 mL working volume; HTBRs) with noninvasive optical sensors for clone screening and selection. We investigated a method for testing several subclones simultaneously in a stirred environment using our high throughput bioreactors (up to 12 clones per HTBR run) and compared it with a traditional well plate selection approach. Importantly, it was found that selecting clones solely based on results from stationary well plate cultures could result in the chance of missing higher producing clones. Our approach suggests that choosing a clone after analyzing its performance in a stirred bioreactor environment is an improved method for clone selection., ((c) 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers)

Cell culture optimization is a labor-intensive process requiring a large number of experiments to be conducted under varying conditions. Here we describe a high-throughput bioreactor system that allows 12 mini stirred-tank bioreactors to be operated simultaneously. All bioreactors are monitored by low-cost minimally invasive optical sensors for pH and dissolved oxygen. The sensors consist of single-use patches affixed inside the bioreactors and monitored optically from the outside. Experimental results show that different sensing patches with the same composition respond consistently. The discrepancy between different pH sensors is less than 0.1 pH units over most of their responsive range. The discrepancy between different dissolved oxygen sensors is less than 10% over the whole range from 0% to 100% dissolved oxygen. The consistency of the sensing system ensures that only an initial one-time calibration is required for the sensing patches. After that, a calibration code is generated and sensing patches of the same composition can be used directly. This greatly reduces the time and cost required for monitored multi-bioreactor operations. We used SP2/0 myeloma/mouse hybridoma cell cultures to demonstrate reactor performance consistency. Transcriptional profiling, HPLC analysis, viable cell count, and viability inspection show that the presence of sensing patches and the use of optical monitoring have no apparent effect on the metabolism of the cells.

Fermentanomics is an emerging field of research and involves understanding the underlying controlled process variables and their effect on process yield and product quality. Although major advancements have occurred in process analytics over the past two decades, accurate real-time measurement of significant quality attributes for a biotech product during production culture is still not feasible. Researchers have used an amalgam of process models and analytical measurements for monitoring and process control during production. This article focuses on using multivariate data analysis as a tool for monitoring the internal bioreactor dynamics, the metabolic state of the cell, and interactions among them during culture. Quality attributes of the monoclonal antibody product that were monitored include glycosylation profile of the final product along with process attributes, such as viable cell density and level of antibody expression. These were related to process variables, raw materials components of the chemically defined hybridoma media, concentration of metabolites formed during the course of the culture, aeration-related parameters, and supplemented raw materials such as glucose, methionine, threonine, tryptophan, and tyrosine. This article demonstrates the utility of multivariate data analysis for correlating the product quality attributes (especially glycosylation) to process variables and raw materials (especially amino acid supplements in cell culture media). The proposed approach can be applied for process optimization to increase product expression, improve consistency of product quality, and target the desired quality attribute profile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fermentanomics, or a global understanding of a culture state on the molecular level empowered by advanced techniques like NMR, was employed to show that a model hybridoma culture supplied with glutamine and glucose depletes aspartate, cysteine, methionine, tryptophan, and tyrosine during antibody production. Supplementation with these amino acids prevents depletion and improves culture performance. Furthermore, no significant changes were observed in the distribution of glycans attached to the IgG3 in cultures supplemented with specific amino acids, arguing that this strategy can be implemented without fear of impact on important product quality attributes. In summary, a targeted strategy of quantifying media components and designing a supplementation strategy can improve bioprocess cell cultures when enpowered by fermentanomics tools. Published 2013 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 29:745-753, 2013 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, there is a gap in the knowledge of the culture responses to controlled bioreactor environment during the course of batch cell culture from early exponential phase to stationary-phase. If available, such information could be used to designate gene transcripts for predicting cell status and as a quality predictor for a controlled bioreactor. In this study, we used oligonucleotide microarrays to obtain baseline gene expression profiles during the time-course of a hybridoma batch cell culture in a 5 L bench-scale bioreactor. Gene expression changes that were up or down modulated from early-to-late in batch culture, as well as invariant gene profiles with significant expression were identified using microarray. Typical cellular functions that seemed to be correlated with transcriptomics were oxidative stress response, DNA damage response, apoptosis, and cellular metabolism. As confirmatory evidence, microarray findings were verified with a more rigorous semiquantitative gene-specific Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The results of this study suggest that under predefined bioreactor culture conditions, significant gene changes from lag to log to stationary phase could be identified, which could then be used to track the culture state. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 2012 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scale-down of bioreactors is currently done based on matching one or more measurable parameters such as kL a and P/ V, which could result in insufficient process comparability. Currently, there is a lack of genomic translational studies in cell culture scale-down, which could help delineate measurable cellular attributes for improved scale-down. In this study, we scaled-down from a typical bench-scale 5-L bioreactor to a novel high-throughput 35-mL minibioreactor based on matching oxygen transfer rate, which resulted in cell growth and product-related discrepancies using Sp2/0 cells. Performing DNA microarrays on time-course samples from both systems, we identified ∼200 differentially expressed transcripts, presumably because of bioreactor aeration and mixing differences with scale-down. Evaluating these transcripts for bioreactor-relevant cellular functions such as oxidative stress response and DNA damage response, we chose 18 sentinel genes based on their degree of difference and functionality, which we further verified by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction ( qRT-PCR). Tracking the differential expression of Sod1, Apex1, and Odc1 genes, we were able to correlate sparging-related damage and poor mixing, as possible causes for physiological changes such as prolonged culture in minibioreactors. Additionally, to verify our sentinel gene findings, we performed follow-up improved scale-down studies based on gene analysis and measured transcriptomic changes. As a result, qRT-PCR-based genomic profiles and cell growth profiles showed better convergence between the improved minibioreactor conditions and the model 5-L bioreactor. Our results broadly show that based on the knowledge from transcriptomic changes of sentinel gene profiles, it is possible to improve bioreactor scale-down for more comparable processes. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 2012 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bioprocess development cycle is a complex task that requires a complete understanding of the engineering of the process (e.g., mass transfer, mixing, CO removal, process monitoring, and control) and its affect on cell biology and product quality. Despite their widespread use in bioprocess development, spinner flasks generally lack engineering characterization of critical physical parameters such as k a, P/ V, or mixing time. In this study, mass transfer characterization of a 250-mL spinner flask using optical patch-based sensors is presented. The results quantitatively show the effect of the impeller type, liquid filling volume, and agitation speed on the volumetric mass transfer coefficient ( k a) in a 250-mL spinner flask, and how they can be manipulated to match mass transfer capability at large culture devices. Thus, process understanding in spinner flasks can be improved, and these devices can be seamlessly integrated in a rational scale-up strategy from cell thawing to bench-scale bioreactors (and beyond) in biomanufacturing. © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 2011. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]