Jun 6 2012
Ventria
Bioscience today announced that its non-therapeutic products
division InVitria
has been awarded a new Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR)
grant from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The funds total $1.5 million
over 2 years, and will support a collaborative research and development
effort between InVitria; The Institute for Antiviral Research at Utah
State University (Logan, Utah); SoloHill Engineering, Inc. (Ann Arbor,
Mich.); and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's
Division of Vector-Borne Diseases (Fort Collins, Colo.). The focus of
the research is to use InVitria's cell culture supplements to develop a
novel, animal-free, defined cell culture media for the commercial
production of cell-based vaccines.
"Currently, commercial vaccine production relies heavily on the use of
cell culture media supplemented with animal-derived products, such as
fetal bovine serum and transferrin, to nourish the cell lines and
support their growth," said Steven Pettit, Ph.D., InVitria's director of
cell culture development and the principal investigator on the grant.
"However, animal-derived products are expensive, have undefined
composition that leads to inconsistent manufacturing, and are a
potential source of contamination from infectious agents. Our goal is to
develop a replacement that mitigates the risks associated with using
serum and other animal-derived components without sacrificing
performance."
As part of the grant application process, InVitria received a letter of
support from U.S. Senator Michael F. Bennet (D-Colo.).
"InVitria's innovative approach to formulating cell culture media can
improve the safety and efficiency of vaccine production," said Bennet.
"I applaud InVitria and other Colorado companies whose hard work and
thorough research lead to concrete solutions and valuable contributions
to society's well-being."
Over the last century, mass vaccination strategies have eradicated or
nearly eradicated smallpox, paralytic polio, and a number of other
childhood vaccine-preventable diseases and dramatically reduced
worldwide morbidity and mortality from many others. As the demand for
current and novel vaccines has grown, the manufacturers are seeking a
shift from traditional, egg-based methods to cell culture-based
biomanufacturing systems. Cell culture offers advantages over egg-based
manufacturing, such as decreased allergenicity and increased production
speed and yield, but the process generally depends on the use of
reagents that are derived from animal sources. Not only are these
reagents poorly defined in composition, but their use also introduces
the potential risk that the end product will be contaminated with animal
viruses, prions, or other infectious agents.
"Our project is designed to address multiple significant concerns for
the vaccine industry," said Scott Deeter, president and CEO of Ventria
Bioscience. "We expect that the use of animal-free cell culture
supplements in place of animal-derived components will enable the
development of a defined, animal-free cell culture medium that provides
superior performance at a lower cost and, at the same time, answers the
call by agencies for a safer alternative to animal-derived components
used in vaccine production."
The specific aims of the grant are to formulate defined media optimized
for maximum cell density, extended cell viability, and maximum antigen
yield in the Vero cell line when it is grown using microcarriers, roller
bottles and bioreactors. The antigenicity of vaccine components produced
using the novel and industry-standard media will also be compared.
Groundbreaking 3D dynamic cell co-culture models simulate MASLD progression