What is the role of Hydrolysates in Biotherapeutics Manufacturing?

“This research will enable an understanding of the functional role of hydrolysates in cell culture media that will promote the efficient production of biotherapeutics from bioprocesses.” Michael Butler

Biotherapeutics manufacture at a commercial scale is a complex process involving the growth of mammalian cells in a multi-component liquid media containing bioactive components, which can be sourced from plant and microbial sources such as soy, yeast, cotton and wheat.

These components are chemically undefined and contain complex composition dependent on the raw material used, making cell culture media one of the most difficult components to control.

Partnership receives Enterprise Ireland support 

Kerry Group, a supplier of commercialised breakdown products of proteins, or hydrolysates, for use in cell cultures along with National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT) and ValitaCell have announced a strategic collaboration to validate the role of protein hydrolysates in cell culture media during the commercial manufacture of biotherapeutics. The project is supported by Enterprise Ireland under the Innovation Partnership programme.

Vivien Sheehan, Global VP RD&A & Regulatory AH&N at Kerry Group commented: “We at Kerry are delighted to collaborate with NIBRT & ValitaCell to further enhance our understanding of our hydrolysates. ValitaCell’s novel Chemstress® platform and NIBRTs expertise will support in developing this understanding and help Kerry in producing the next generation of plant & microbial based hydrolysates for the production of biotheraputics. We are thankful for the continued support from Enterprise Ireland for Kerry’s research and development activities across multiple end use markets.”

Biotechnology company ValitaCell will provide access to its Chemstress® platform, to characterise the behaviour of cells using a panel of specific, small molecule chemical stressors. The assay is carried out on a multiwell plate and enables the rapid screening of the robustness of cells within the specific environment of each well.

Dr Jerry Clifford, CEO at ValitaCell remarked: “ValitaCell have invested significant resources in our Chemstress platform to provide scientists with a Biological prism of their manufacturing environment, in microscale. Working with Kerry Group and NIBRT on this specific validation problem is a great opportunity to demonstrate the power of our technology in the Cell Culture media component sector.”

The programme of work will be conducted at the NIBRT, University College of Dublin, under the guidance of Professor Michael Butler, Principal Investigator in the Cell Technology Group at NIBRT who said: “We are delighted at NIBRT to receive funding from Enterprise Ireland in collaboration with the Kerry Group and ValitaCell to enable a study of the bioactive properties of plant and microbial sourced hydrolysates using the Chemstress platform technology. This research will enable an understanding of the functional role of hydrolysates in cell culture media that will promote the efficient production of biotherapeutics from bioprocesses.”

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