Product Hub: Optimising suspension Chinese hamster ovary cells

Laura Juckem, PhD, R&D Group Leader at Mirus Bio, discusses the company’s systems for optimising suspension Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells…

Mirus Bio is an expert in providing transfection services globally, using its experience in nucleic acid chemistry, cellular and molecular biology to establish innovative technologies and products for use in life science research.

During preclinical development, identification of promising candidate proteins is vital to maintaining a robust product pipeline, Mirus Bio believes. Laura Juckem, PhD, R&D Group Leader at Mirus Bio tells European Pharmaceutical Review: “Obtaining sufficient quantities of protein early in this process allows for testing functionality and critical quality parameters like glycosylation and aggregation which greatly aids in making the go or no-go decision for a particular target.”

However, expression of relevant protein targets in CHO cells – often the cell line of choice – has been hampered by low transient transfection efficiencies making them an impractical host for early-stage screening, she believes. Higher titers can often be obtained from HEK 293 derived cell types; however, the use of different host cells between early transient and later stable protein production is a concern. “Material obtained from 293 cells is not always consistent with CHO-derived material causing false-positive candidates to be advanced. Protein produced transiently in CHO cells better represents the final biologic that will be produced from the stable CHO clones, and with recent advancements in transient transfection of CHO cells, high titers are can now be realised in both CHO and 293 cell types,” Dr. Juckem says…