Research Outline

In the field of biologics production, productivity and stability of the transfected gene-of-interest are two very important attributes that dictate if a production process is viable. To further understand and improve these two traits, we need to further our understanding of the factors affecting them. A study of this phenomenon and how the various factors contribute to it will thus shed light on strategies to improve productivity and stability in the production cell line.

A common phenomenon observed of these two traits is their variability between different clones, better known as “clonal variability”. Various factors have been identified by the scientific community to contribute to this phenomenon. These include integration site of the gene, gene copy number, cell phenotypic variation and cell environment. Of the four factors, the site of gene integration appears to be one of the most important. Hence, my current work is focused on studying how different integration sites affect the productivity and stability of transfected genes in the development process. Integration sites of transfected single cell clones are being characterised and related to their differences in productivity and stability.