TESSA Technology: A Plasmid-Free, Scalable System to Transform AAV Manufacture

This webcast features: Dr. Weiheng Su, Principal Scientist, OXGENE

Adenoassociated virus (AAV) is a popular choice of viral vector for new gene therapies, but manufacturing systems have not kept pace with biological advances, leaving these therapies costly, difficult to produce at scale, and subject to inherent batch-to-batch variability. In this webinar, Dr. Weiheng Su describes how rethinking AAV manufacture “from the ground up” allowed OXGENE to manipulate AAV’s natural relationship with adenovirus to address these challenges with their novel tetracycline-enabled self-silencing adenovirus (TESSA) technology.

TESSA vectors, like wild-type adenovirus, provide high-quality help for AAV replication, but unlike the wild-type virus are unable to produce adenoviral structural proteins, thereby reducing adenoviral contamination by 99.9999% in a manufacturing run. Integration of the AAV rep and cap genes into the TESSA vector means that everything required for AAV production, except the AAV genome, can be provided in a single viral vector. Meanwhile, the AAV genome can either be encoded within a second TESSA vector, in a plasmid, or within an AAV particle itself. Once this first AAV seed stock has been produced, coinfecting cells with this AAV alongside another TESSA vector can further amplify the AAV in a simple, reproducible, and scalable manner, removing the reliance on expensive and limiting plasmids for AAV manufacture.

This webinar will take a deep dive into the data behind this new technology, demonstrating how the use of TESSA vectors can improve recombinant adenoassociated virus (rAAV) yield, particle infectivity, and quality across serotypes, establishing the potential for reduced cost of goods and improved safety for AAV based gene therapies.

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