Developing a Whole Genome CRISPR Screen to Improve CHO Cells for Biomanufacturing

This webcast features: Jamie Freeman, PhD, Product Manager, Horizon Discovery

While great strides have been made in increasing the yield of biotherapeutic proteins, these have been achieved mainly through process improvement with a particular focus on media and feed strategies. Aside from single gene knockouts to allow for metabolic selection systems, the CHO host itself remains largely unchanged from that which was used thirty years ago.

This webcast will cover how Horizon Discovery has used the recently released annotated sequence of their GS null CHO K1 cell line to design an optimized whole genome CRISPR library. Screening this library against a range of reporter assays, the presentation will describe how Horizon Discovery identifies genetic targets that improve the biomanufacturing capacity of their GS knockout CHO K1 cell line for both monoclonal antibodies and more difficult to express proteins. Once identified, Horizon uses a rAAV-based gene engineering technology to generate an edited cell line with a clear IP position and the freedom to use the cells for commercial manufacturing. This approach will improve the expression capacity of the CHO cell, and enable the manufacture of next generation therapeutics that cannot be achieved using existing solutions.