Project description
A new era for biomanufacturing processes
Adhesion on extracellular matrix-based substrates is an integral part of adherent cell culture and central to the manufacturing of complex biotherapeutics. However, existing solid substrates are costly and difficult to process at large scale. To address this problem, the EU-funded ProBioFac project proposes to use emulsion-based protein nanosheets as substrates to support cells in biomanufacturing processes. Emulsions are widely used to produce fine chemicals, drugs and nanomaterials. Researchers will test the biocompatibility of these emulsion substrates with commercial bioreactors and promote their use for the production of biotherapeutics such as vaccines.
Objective
The large scale expansion of adherent cells, which underpins the production of stem cells for regenerative medicine and the manufacturing of complex biotherapeutics (e.g. exosomes and vaccines) remains challenging and a key hurdle to the accessibility of associated therapies. Indeed, the expansion of adherent stem cells and adherent cell lines for bioproduction relies on culture on solid microcarriers that remain difficult to process and significantly add to costs. Cell adhesion to solid substrates and associated mechanotransduction is thought to be essential to mediate key processes regulating the production of biotherapeutics, such as exosome secretion and protein glycosylation. However, we recently demonstrated that liquid substrates, such as emulsion microdroplets, can support cell adhesion and promote the retention of a normal adherent phenotype. We showed that this process is mediated by the self-assembly of mechanically strong protein nanosheets at corresponding liquid-liquid interfaces. This project will demonstrate the scale up of emulsion-based biomanufacturing platforms. We will scale up (L scale) bio-emulsions based on protein nanosheets that promote cell adhesion and display suitable interfacial mechanics, from affordable protein sources. We will demonstrate the compatibility of such systems with bioreactors routinely used in the field, for the scale up of adherent stem cells production, and that of adherent cell lines for biotherapeutics production (exosomes and vaccines). We will establish further IP and a commercialisation strategy with identified partners to translate our technology in the field of biomanufacturing. We propose that bio-emulsions for the culture of adherent cells will bring a step change to the field of biomanufacturing, enabling to borrow concepts and processes from the field of chemical engineering, in which biphasic liquid-liquid systems and emulsions have revolutionised the production of fine chemicals, drugs and nanomaterials.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteins
- natural sciencesbiological sciencescell biology
- medical and health sciencesmedical biotechnologycells technologiesstem cells
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugsvaccines
- engineering and technologychemical engineering
You need to log in or register to use this function
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-POC - Proof of Concept GrantHost institution
E1 4NS London
United Kingdom