Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- 1 Introducing the animal cell as a bioreactor
- 2 Yields of recombinant product: engineering cells for maximum expression
- 3 Generation of biomass
- 4 Adjusting cellular metabolism for optimum product yield
- 5 Downstream processing
- 6 Regulatory aspects of using cells as bioreactors
- 7 Overview and conclusions
- References
- Index
1 - Introducing the animal cell as a bioreactor
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- 1 Introducing the animal cell as a bioreactor
- 2 Yields of recombinant product: engineering cells for maximum expression
- 3 Generation of biomass
- 4 Adjusting cellular metabolism for optimum product yield
- 5 Downstream processing
- 6 Regulatory aspects of using cells as bioreactors
- 7 Overview and conclusions
- References
- Index
Summary
Generalities
A bioreactor is essentially a tool or device for generating product using the synthetic or chemical conversion capacity of a biological system. From the 1970s onwards there has been steady increase of attempts to harness biological systems to perform specific and difficult chemical tasks as demands for lower energy consumption and the requirement for ever more intricate syntheses have increased. Bioreactors have ranged from immobilized and engineered enzymes, through an ever increasing number of natural and recombinant microbial systems, to cells derived from animal tissues.
When the aim is to reproduce the complex molecules found in animals, cultured animal cells offer unique qualities as bioreactors because they alone are capable of accurately reproducing effectively the whole of the biological chemistry which operates in our bodies. Thus, they can, in principle, reproduce any molecule occurring there which may find application in medicine. In practice, it is in the production of proteins and their derivatives for diagnostic, prophylactic and therapeutic use that animal cells are currently finding increasing application. The challenge is greatest in the synthesis of significant quantities of human therapeutic proteins intended for clinical approaches that seek to correct deficiencies of endogenous biomolecules or to augment their existing levels. This approach requires high expression levels, stable production capacities, products whose safety and efficacy are rigorously controlled and products of precisely defined structure which accurately reproduce that of the naturally occurring proteins. Despite their unequalled potential to fulfil these criteria, it is only in recent years that animal cells have become useful as practical, industrial-scale bioreactors.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Animal Cells as Bioreactors , pp. 1 - 10Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994