Integrated Bioprocessing
The continued efforts to intensify bioprocesses will drive higher manufacturing efficiency and lower costs. Improvements in cell culture titer expression with lower impurities will drive to smaller scale manufacturing and reduce both capital and operating costs. In addition, improved sustainability goals will be achieved by reduced water usage, raw material use and energy consumption.
Sartorius corporate research is driving CHO cell line improvements via gene knockout technologies. This should lead to higher titer processes and reduce impurities such as host cell protein and viral particles. It is envisaged that combining cell expression improvements with upstream intensification can deliver mAb processes up to 40-60g/L titer compared to the 5-10g/L of today. In addition the footprint of the purification process can potentially be reduced, by the lower upstream impurity burden. The integration of unit operations is being demonstrated at the Sartorius Gottingen open labs, to drive efficiency improvements, and create overarching control strategy concepts. In addition these next generation process platforms and technologies are being designed for sustainability. We are building the fundamental knowledge of the process impact to raw material use, water use, energy consumption, and waste reduction to create decision tools to determine not only the optimum process but also the most sustainable.