The Big Red Biotech Blog

WWCED: What Would Cell Engineering Do?

If you had the zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) reagents in your hands right now to allow you to knock out – dhfr, GS, fut8, neu3, bax/bak, lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA), or RACK 1?  What would you do?  You can directly affect selection, fucosylation, sialylation, apoptosis, waste product production – either alone or in combination (so-called trait stacking). 

 

If you could do it, what genes would you want to manipulate?  And what combinations would be interesting for your system and proteins of interest? 

 

I’d like to get some feedback.  It would be great if this could be discussed on the blog, but would even like private feedback if musts be (as my UK colleagues say). 

 

These are the type of questions that we are pondering.  And, we’re looking for market confirmation as well as potentially collaborators who might want to look at these – or even other genes of interest 

Let’s hear from you out there.

 

Posted by Bruce Lehr February 4, 2010

Cool CMO Site

I came across this cool site called CMO Locator by Kymanox.  It allows you to find CMOs among its registrants who have the capabilities that you are looking for to execute your project.  For example you might designate a need for a CMO that can meet following needs -  mfg drug substance API, platform cell culture, scale 2000-5000 L, fed-batch process, phase I/II compliance, biosafety level 3. 

The tool will spit out a list of CMOs matching those criteria.

Posted by Bruce Lehr January 31, 2010

SAFC Biosciences Publishes on New Sialylation gene in CHO

Scientists in the SAFC Biosciences Cell Science and Development (CSD) department have pubished a new paper on a novel sialylation gene in CHO, called neu 3.  The group confirmed neu 3 functionality by knocking it down with siRNA and shRNA to suppress gene function.  They confirmed a model gamma interferon increased in its degree of sialylation under these conditions.  This will come out in Biotechnology and Bioengineering.  Lead authors for this study were Min Zhang and Scott Ross. 

Posted by Bruce Lehr January 31, 2010

Local Boy Makes Good - With Stem Cells

Since we are located very near Kansas City, and Stowers Institute is a neighbor, I felt compelled to pass this story along.  Liheng Li's lab (say that fast 3x) reported (GEN) a novel theory for how stem cells are regulated in mammalian tissues.

Posted by Bruce Lehr January 30, 2010

Vaccine Market trends Hot

Go to In-Pharma Technologist to download new white paper by my colleagues Jeff Strobel and Dave Backer entitled "Trends in the Manufacturing of Viral Gene Therapeutics and Next Generation Vaccines".

Posted by Bruce Lehr Jan 28, 2010

New Adjuvants Make Their Move

Fierce Biotech reported that Juvaris BioTherapeutics has attracted a new investor for its novel adjuvant technology and its lead candidate JVRS-100.  This continues the interest shown in the adjuvant area with the resurgence of the vaccine market.

GEN recently noted this trend as well in its review of the vaccine market. Several newer adjuvants that are designed to produce greater immunogenicity than the more traditonal aluminum salts are making inroads.  These include immunostimulators and microparticulate carriers, and may consist of more novel raw materials like cationionic lipids, squalene,  and saponin as examples. Several new adjuvants are in clinical trials.

Posted by Bruce Lehr Jan 27, 2010

What would you knock out?

With a license to zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) technology, we now can create cell lines with enhanced properties rapidly and efficiently - markedly so as compared to homologous recombination techniques.  Given the power, what genes would you knock out? 

From a recombinant protein producers viewpoint, using CHO cells, we surmise genes like dhfr, GS, or fut8 and combinations thereof could expected to be popular choices.  How about an endogenous host cell protein that co-purifies with your therapeutic?  Or elimination of an endogenous viral sequence from your host cell? 

What would you knock out?

Posted by Bruce Lehr Jan 21, 2010

Innovation Update

Wonder what the impact of the current financial crisis is on investment toward innovation? 

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) issued its highlights in OECD Science, Technology, and Industry Scorecard discussing recent trends and comparing OECD countries to faster growing BRIICS countries.  

Summary of the key findings can also be found in PharmTech Talk.

Posted by Bruce Lehr Jan 17, 2010