EAGER: The International CHO Genome Community Project

University Of Delaware, Newark DE

Investigators

Abstract

The overall objective for this EAGER proposal is to develop a framework to support the international Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell community's effort to move into the genomeera. CHO cells are currently the most widely used mammalian cell line for biopharmaceutical production. Nearly 70% of all recombinant biotherapeutics, yielding a global market of nearly $100 billion per year, are produced in CHO cells. Biopharmaceutical production will continue to provide the pharmaceutical industry with tremendous growth in the next several years, enabling continued research into new medical treatments and the expansion of manufacturing facilities. Unfortunately, efforts to improve the system using metabolic engineering and other scientific and engineering methodologies have lagged due to the absence of a genome and community genome framework. As a result, this project will implement the infrastructure to pursue two specific aims for support of the international CHO community: Specific Aim #1: Develop an information technology (IT) - infrastructure to support the sharing of genome-scale data and tools for the CHO biotechnology community and provide a forum where the CHO biotechnology community can interact and synergize on-line. Specific Aim #2: Educate graduate students on the use of bioinformatics to implement and analyze the CHO genome and enhance specific productivity and product quality using new webbased tools of importance to the CHO community. The intellectual merit of this proposal results from the development of a one-stop website portal to support the community. As part of the establishment of this portal, a number of bioinformatic tools will need to be employed to seamlessly migrate existing genome-scale datasets into a common interface. The broader impact of this proposal relates to the important impact this effort will have on the entire international CHO biotechnology community. Partners from a wide range of international entities including academic, government, and industrial scientists, have come together to support the CHO genome community by providing resources, expertise, and data. Additional impact will come from the education of graduate students working on the project who will closely interface with industrial scientists and from workforce development activities for the industrial community.