Cell Line Development

In the Cell Line Development group, we focus on developing novel platform technologies for the rapid generation of Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell lines producing high titer and excellent quality therapeutic antibodies to meet the industrial needs. From cell transfection to clinical development, we engineer the cell lines to improve the efficacy of biologics development.

Our in-house developed technology enables rapid generation of high producing and good quality CHO production cell lines; generating high producing clones with titre up to 5g/L in fed-batch cultures within 9 weeks. The generated cell lines have stable production of more than 60 generations to ensure successful scale up for large scale manufacturing.

Performance of a biosimilar–producing CHO cell line generated using our multi-cistronic vector technology

(Data collected in 14-day bioreactor fed-batch cultures)

Targeted integration technology utilises Recombinase-Mediated-Cassette-Exchange (RMCE), which recognises pre-determined active recombination sites in the genome and substitute the sequence with a new transgene. Multi-cistronic vector adopts Internal Ribosome Entry Site (IRES) elements to allow the expression of multiple genes in one transcript.

Featured publications:

Multiplexed engineering glycosyltransferase genes in CHO cells via targeted integration for producing antibodies with diverse complex‑type N‑glycans (2021)

Optimized Selection Marker and CHO Host Cell Combinations for Generating High Monoclonal Antibody Producing Cell Lines (2017)

IRES-mediated tricistronic vectors for enhancing generation of high monoclonal antibody expressing CHO cell lines (2012)

Landmark patent & IP:

Promoters for high level expression (2020)

Mutated IRES for controlled gene expression (2017)

IRES mediated multi-cistronic vectors (2014)

Modified human CMV promoters that are resistant to gene silencing (2012)