A group of biotechnology companies and research organisations are beginning novel cell and gene therapy R&D efforts to optimise viral vector manufacturing.
The conglomerate includes UK biotech players VVector Bio, Revvity and Abselion, as well as the Canada's National Research Council (NRC).
The research is fuelled by a GBP £1.1m grant from Innovate UK and the NRC's Industrial Research Assistance Programme (IRAP), and aims to genetically modify the HEK-293 cell line to improve viral vector quality and yields.
Optimising the cell and gene therapy production process
Although cell and gene therapies have great potential to treat a plethora of diseases, there are a number of limitations tied to the manufacturing process that are impeding their market growth.
The organisations are therefore attempting to optimise the cell and gene therapy manufacturing process by enhancing the functionality of its associated viral vectors.
To do this, they will analyse the HEK-293 cell line's genome and transcriptome to identify genes associated with viral vector quality and yield.
"This project represents a paradigm shift towards improving viral vector manufacturing yields," remarked Alina Venereo Sanchez, CEO of VVector Bio.
"By integrating genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics and new ways of directly integrating analytics into production, we're poised to unlock unprecedented production capabilities."
"Process optimisation through at-line & on-line analytics is key to redefining viral vector manufacturing." noted Ruizhi Wang, CEO of Abselion.
"This project is the ultimate opportunity to showcase how it can accelerate development and result in more efficient and robust production of the next generation of therapeutics."
This initiative has been funded through the Canada-UK: Biomanufacturing of Biologics and Advanced Therapies programme, which aims to foster collaborations between the two nations while developing novel biomanufacturing technologies.
