Tube-Spin High Trough-Put Bioreactor
ExcellGene's proprietary scale-down TubeSpin-Bioreactors are being used as a high-throughput scale-down system with highest equivalency to large scale suspension bioreactors. Literally hundreds can be run simultaneously with cell culture volumes of 5 ml to 35 ml per bioreactors, easily creating possibilities for process development, media optimization and rapid small scale protein production. These TubeSpin bioreactors allow ExcellGene Scientists to dramatically improve the performance of any suspension culture based mammalian process in a few weeks, while verifying and validating the results in classical stirred tank bioreactors from the 1 Liter scale to the 100 Liter scale.
Novel Patented Fluorescent Mammalian Cell Technology for Process Acceleration
Fluorescent mammalian cells, useful for rapid process development, medium optimization and other cell culture related problems, have been first developed at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, and ExcellGenes scientists have access to this technology due to a licencing agreement (Hunt et al 2001).
Phase II Clinical Trials for CHO-derived Human Recombinant Antibody
ExcellGene scientists, in connection with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, developed a scalable transient protein expression technology for recombinant proteins. Routine transient transfections are currently executed for a number of academic and industrial clients at the 1-10 Liter scale. Expression levels from these processes can reach 50 mg/l and yield 10s-100 mg of protein, just a few weeks after the availability of a suitable expression vector. The first 100 Liter scale transient transfections were executed and reported on in an international conference in 2001 (Wurm and Bernard 1999, Meissner et al 2001, Baldi et al 2002, Girard et al. 2002).
Multiscale Transient Transfections
A recombinant human antiRhesus D-immunoglobulin was co-developed together with a Switzerland-based pharmaceutical company. The process developed is based on a stable, highly productive CHO cell line, using serum-free media and applying a scalable production process in stirred bioreactors. The recombinant human antibody, meeting all required criteria in quality and yield from the process, is presently in Phase II clinical trials in Germany and Switzerland (Miescher et al 2000, Girard et al 2000, Batard et al. 2001).
