Enhancing the Productivity of CHO Cell Lines

In industrial cell culture Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells are the No. 1 work horse: They have been extensively studied and developed, and today provide a stable platform for producing monoclonal antibodies and recombinant proteins.

However, each (sub) clone may be different: growth characteristics, nutrition needs, and expression level can vary greatly between clones. Therefore, enhancing productivity of CHO cells not only means choosing the right cultivation parameter but also selecting the right clones.

Parallel Experiments with Dasgip Systems

When considering clone selection and process optimization, parameters and possibilities can be overwhelming. Dasgip technology with parallel but independent bioreactors, allows multiple conditions to be tested in parallel thereby increasing experimental throughput. Four up to 16 bioreactors with working volumes between 35 mL and 15 L provide users with flexibility in experiment size. Sophisticated software combined with integrated control modules for monitoring, gassing and feeding allow precise control of temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen and other critical parameters for optimizing CHO culture.

The process development department at CuraGen Corporation, Bradford (USA) benefits from the reproducibility of its results using Dasgip systems when optimizing the monoclonal antibody production in a CHO fed-batch culture. Chris Adams, CuraGen, confirms: By using two eight-vessel Dasgip systems we completed 47 experiments of more than twelve days runtime each, in six weeks. Other users such as the Institute of Biotechnology (IBT 2), Research Center Juelich (Germany) are pleased with the scalability of their small-scale (35 mL) Dasgip system.

These and many other reports of successful applications in CHO culture have confirmed that Dasgip systems are the right tools for enhancing growth and productivity of CHO cells.