The need for versatile and economical industrial scale technologies for culturing anchorage-dependent mammalian cells is becoming more evident. This is a result of the increasing demand for vaccines and the use of mammalian cells for some of the newly emerging biopharmaceuticals. Microcarrier beads in bioreactor systems show great potential for use as a large scale production method. SoloHill is developing a family of unique microcarrier products which are superior to those currently available.
The aim of this research is to develop a novel microcarrier bead which will be useful with certain types of low-adhesive, transformed cells which do not readily attach and spread on microcarriers. Such cells are frequently used in the manufacture of veterinary and human biologicals. We propose to modify the surface of our gelatin-coated microcarriers to mak them more adhesive to low adhesive transformed cells while maintaining the other growth characteristics that have made gelatin coated microcarriers successful. Specifically these studies will evaluate three new microcarriers synthesized to contain a combination of gelatin and either (1 a cationic polyamino acid, (2) a stable synthetic peptide or (3) hydroxyapatite. If successful the product will extend the benefits of microcarrier technology to a wider market.
