Plant Bioreactor Systems

Plant cell culture has the potential to provide significant cost reductions over traditional culture platforms for human therapeutics with inherent inability to propagate most mammalian viral contaminants, cheaper and more readily available substrates, and benefits associated with Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) organisms.

 Expression Platform

We have extensive experience culturing Nicotiana benthamiana and Oryza sativa cell lines. Our current work specializes in agrobacterium-mediated transient expression and inducible expression systems.

Our group has produced a transgenic rice (Oryza sativa) cell line capable of producing active recombinant butyrylcholinesterase in a cyclical or semi-continuous format through use of a metabolically-regulated inducible promoter. Expression is induced upon sugar starvation.

Example publications:

1.)  Semicontinuous bioreactor production of recombinant butyrylcholinesterase in rice cell suspension cultures
2.)  Plant-derived pharmaceuticals: principles and applications for developing countries

Production Capacity

Our lab’s highly specialized upstream equipment enables us to engage in cell culture research at a range of production scales not typical of academia. When combined with our robust purification assets, the stage is set for unique opportunities in both applied and translational research; protein demands for extensive characterization, secondary product applications, and clinical trials exceed the supply capabilities of many academic laboratories; production data at pilot-scale greatly increases confidence of product commercial feasibility.