BPI Theater

TESSA Platform Delivers High-Quality, High-Titer, Multiserotype rAAV Stocks

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Presented by: Maria PatrĂ­cio, lead scientist for viral design and discovery, Oxgene, a WuXi Advanced Therapies company Building upon colleague Jason King’s BPI Theater presentation on transient transfection platforms for viral-vector production, PatrĂ­cio focused on scalable manufacturing solutions for adenoassociated virus (AAV), the vector used most often to deliver gene therapies. AAV naturally requires a helper virus to replicate. Plasmid transfection enables helper-free manufacture, but that process is difficult to manage at commercial scales. A more scalable approach is to…

August 4, 2021

Applying the Allogeneic Process to Overcome Challenges in Cell Therapy

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Presented by: Evan Zynda, staff scientist, Thermo Fisher Scientific Cell therapy companies increasingly are pursuing allogeneic therapies to negotiate manufacturing challenges associated with autologous approaches. Products based on high-quality cells from healthy donors could improve therapeutic efficacy. Allogeneic approaches also could facilitate large-scale therapy production, which in turn could reduce time-to-treatment and increase therapy affordability and accessibility. Zynda showed how increased understanding of T-cell biology could help improve allogeneic workflows. Zynda emphasized the utility of studying signaling pathways associated with…

August 4, 2021

Transient Viral Vector Solution

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Presented by: Jason King, business development manager, Oxgene, a WuXi Advanced Therapies company Since joining the WuXi Advanced Therapies division of WuXi AppTec in March 2021, Oxgene has focused on helping gene therapy developers to optimize their viralvector production systems as they transition from preclinical and early clinical projects to good manufacturing practice (GMP)-grade manufacturing. King observed that early stages of gene therapy development nearly always involve systems for transient transfection rather than scalable platforms. Inducible producer cell lines, viral…

August 4, 2021

Enabling Pharma and Biotech Innovation Through an Open-Access Platform: Targeted Protein Degradation

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Presented by: Dave Madge, vice president, research division, WuXi AppTec Madge described methods that his company applies to identify and evaluate bifunctional molecules that mediate targeted protein degradation (TPD). He pointed out that although much TPD research focuses on proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTAC) compounds, the tools used to identify such molecules also can be used to evaluate the therapeutic potential of other bifunctional molecules. Of particular interest are those that bring “housekeeping proteins†to disease-causing targets. More broadly, researchers are…

August 4, 2021

BioProcess Insider Interview: Sam Machour, Samsung Biologics

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BioProcess Insider brings the biotechnology news as it breaks. For the on-demand BPI Theater at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s 2021 convention, founding editor Dan Stanton interviewed leading biopharmaceutical executives in early June 2021. Contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) have thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic despite constraints on supply chains. Sam Machour, senior vice president and chief quality officer at Samsung Biologics explained that his company’s pandemic-period success has stemmed primarily from its ability to accelerate production timelines. Before 2020,…

August 4, 2021

BioProcess Insider Interview – Marc Hummersone, Astrea Bioseparations

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BioProcess Insider brings the biotechnology news as it breaks. For the on-demand BPI Theater at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s 2021 convention, founding editor Dan Stanton interviewed leading biopharmaceutical executives in early June 2021. Highlighting the rapid proliferation of cell and gene therapies (CGTs), Hummerson described how his company seeks to support downstream processing for emerging therapies. Hummerson reflected that when he joined the biopharmaceutical industry in 2006, developers of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) expressed great need for innovative purification solutions. The…

August 3, 2021

CGMP Manufacturing Facility Design and Evolution

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Presented by: Mike Alston, Jr., director, project engineering; and William Leonardi, PhD, senior project manager, Avid Bioservices These two speakers shared lessons learned in the design and buildout of current good manufacturing practice (CGMP) manufacturing facilities at Avid. Leonardi began with a history of the company’s 28+ years of biologics development and manufacturing and its track record as a successful contract and development manufacturing organization (CDMO). Avid’s main campus comprises a cluster of buildings in Tustin, CA. GMP, process-development, and…

August 3, 2021

Manufacture of CRISPR RNPs for Clinical Use

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Shawn Shafer, PhD, genome editing platform lead, Aldevron Shafer spoke about manufacturing ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) for clinical applications. CRISPR RNP consists of a guide RNA (sgRNA) complex with the CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9). The Cas9 protein is complexed with the guide RNA as it associates with the genomic DNA. Once the guide RNA is aligned with the complementary genomic DNA sequence, the catalytic nucleus domains cleave the genomic DNA, creating a double-stranded break…

August 28, 2020

Technology Integrators in Cell and Gene Therapy: Powering Innovation

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Julien Meissonnier, vice president and chief scientific officer, Catalent Meissonnier shared information about the expanded role of contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) in cell and gene therapies (CGTs). Catalent entered the gene therapy space in 2019 through acquisition of Paragon BioServices, adding expertise in adenoassociated viruses (AAVs) and viral vector manufacturing. Cell therapy capabilities were acquired early in 2020 through acquisition of MaSTherCell, with the goal of providing end-to-end integrated solutions to CGT customers. In addition to expertise in…

August 28, 2020

Development of an Advanced Gene Therapy Platform

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Steve Pincus, PhD, head of science and innovation, Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies (FDB) is a contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) with four sites in the United Kingdom, Denmark, and the United States (Research Triangle Park, NC, and College Station, TX). The sites in Denmark, the United Kingdom, and North Carolina specialize in proteins and monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) with capabilities up to 20,000 L. The Texas site works primarily on virus-based therapies and was founded by Texas A&M University…

August 28, 2020