Endoproteases specific for cleavage of peptidyl bonds on the C-terminal side of lysine residues (e.g., Lys-C) are produced from a number of bacterial species, including Achromobacter lyticus (1), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (2), and Lysobacter enzymogenes (3). The Achromobacter protease 1 (API) protein has been substantially characterized (4,5,6) and shown to be a resilient enzyme that can specifically cleave after lysine residues under a wide range of buffer conditions, including high concentrations of denaturing agents such as urea and sodium dodecyl sulphate…
February 2009
Medium and Process Optimization for High Yield, High Density Suspension Cultures: From Low Throughput Spinner Flasks to High Throughput Millilitre Reactors
The most important contributions to high-yield manufacturing processes for the production of recombinant proteins from cultivated mammalian cells have come from the identification of highly enriched and well-balanced media formulations, and fine tuning the process conditions that support high cell culture densities with high specific productivity. The industry standard yield for immunoglobulins or similar molecules derived from suspension-cultivated mammalian cells in bioreactors has risen during the past 20 years from the tens of mg/L to g/L. The more…
Environmental Impact of Single-Use and Reusable Bioprocess Systems
Bioprocess manufacturing systems have incorporated single-use/disposable components for more than 50 years and have demonstrated well-defined process benefits from their use (1,2,3,4,5,6). The environmental impact of single-use technologies, however, has been a major focus of attention only in recent years. This evolving interest has been driven by many factors including concerns over environmental change, emissions, and energy supplies; rapidly increasing costs and restrictions on waste disposal; greater recognition of the role of disposables in bioprocessing; and availability of…
Biopharmaceutical Processes: A Glance into the 21st Century
Biopharmaceutical drug products are not only well established but also contribute to a large degree to new drug entity filings. Currently approved biopharmaceuticals and proteins are now widely used to treat diseases as diverse as cancer, autoimmune disorders, myocardial infarction and various growth factor deficiencies. The unmet medical need can be so essential, such as a novel approach to cancer treatment, that biotech companies will choose to defer the optimal design of the production process to reduce the…
Of Mice and Men…
Few US industries demonstrate preeminent creative and financial world leadership year in and year out, but we can think of two that look forward to continuing blockbusters that will provide mountains of new cash followed by consistent follow-on revenues. In both arenas, an idea is calculated to be something that people everywhere will want, so it is launched with a huge bolus of cash and a cash burn that almost takes its company to the brink. Both industries capitalize on…