Award details

A Combinatorial Approach to Enhance Production of Monoclonal Antibodies

Reference	BB/M018237/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Robert White
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor Nia Bryant, Professor Daniel Ungar
Institution	University of York
Department	Biology
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	2,738,493
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	07/07/2015
End date	01/11/2021
Duration	76 months

Abstract

CHO cells are the most widely used industrial system for producing recombinant therapeutic proteins, but can struggle to express and secrete large biologics such as monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) at sustained high levels. We will address this with a systematic programme of synthetic cell bioengineering that combines innovative approaches to concomitantly increase CHO cells' capacities to express and secrete mAbs. Our team combines complementary skill sets to enhance successive steps that are potentially rate-limiting for mAb production, including transgene expression, mRNA translation, intracellular trafficking, post-translational modification and secretion. We will combine a series of novel improvements in a holistic manner to generate CHO cell lines optimised to produce mAbs of great economic and therapeutic value. In so doing, the project will establish a robust, flexible and adaptable UK platform for optimisation and manufacture of therapeutic biologics.

Summary

Biopharmaceuticals, also known as biologic medical products (biologics for short) are medicinal products manufactured in or extracted from biological systems and are distinct from synthesized pharmaceutical products. Examples include vaccines against diseases such as polio and therapeutics used to treat numerous diseases, such as cancer and arthritis. These therapeutics are often molecules called monoclonal antibodies that are made by the immune system, our inbuilt anti-disease defense mechanism. Perhaps one the best known examples of this is Trastuzumab (trade name; Herceptin), a monoclonal antibody that is used to treat certain breast cancers. Production of these biologics is expensive and this translates into a high financial cost to health care providers. This project aims to alter the cells that make monoclonal antibodies for therapeutic use, so that they make larger amounts with reduced production costs. This should increase the availability of these powerful therapeutics.

Impact Summary

As described in proposal submitted to TSB

Committee	Research Committee C (Genes, development and STEM approaches to biology)
Research Topics	Industrial Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	Industrial Biotechnology Catalyst (IBCAT) [2014-2015]
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

Associated awards:

BB/M018229/1 A Combinatorial Approach to Enhance Production of Monoclonal Antibodies

I accept the terms and conditions of use (opens in new window)

export PDF file

back to list new search