Low-cost Production and Purification of Cytokines and Growth Factors for Cell Therapy Products
The aim of this project is to scale-up and standardize the manufacturing of a low-cost purification medium capable of capturing large scale quantities of tagged proteins and releasing the protein pure and tag-free
Categories
Proteins/ Antibodies
Equipment and Supplies
Project status
100% Completed
Industry Need
Cytokines are proteins used in cell culture to support cell growth, survival, and differentiation.
While they are a vital component of cell therapy manufacturing, they are also the most expensive, with costs ranging from $1K to $50K for a single milligram per cytokine.
The industry would greatly benefit from a new approach to manufacture cytokines for cell growth that is more cost effective.
Solution
Focusing on IL-2 and FGF2 cytokines, Potomac Affinity Proteins teamed with the University of Maryland to scale cytokine production reliably and at a fraction of the cost. The team aimed to use Potomac Affinity Proteins’ e. Coli expression system to create a platform process for cytokine production and purification that integrates molecular machinery into traditional manufacturing technologies. The process would allow for greater scale up potential at a reduced cost, while expanding flexibility for the industry to adopt the novel purification process for other critical cytokines or proteins.
Outputs/Deliverables
Purification media was produced economically in a simple process.
Purification media was used to purify > 1 g of cytokine (IL2 or FGF2) from a 5L fermentation in a simple, one day process.
Purified IL2 and FGF2 passed all biophysical and biological validations using commercially available proteins as controls.
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