Addressing long-term research aiming to develop a simulation and prediction platform for cellular behaviour, this study presents a first mathematical model to fully and dynamically describe the behaviour of the cellular biosystem that's most frequently used in today's biopharmaceutical industry to produce protein-based therapeutic agents. Originally sourced from Chinese hamster ovarian cells, this cellular biosystem, commonly known as CHO cells, was genetically modified to produce a monoclonal antibody, and the mathematical model was used to evaluate the basic differences when a chemical (butyrate) was added to maximize production.

In short, as well as establishing the proof of concept that such a mathematical model is useful for this industrial cellular biosystem, the paper shows that adding butyrate activates and improves the metabolic and energetic efficiency of CHO cells (see Figure 2) while also improving therapeutic protein production.

This study is on its way to supporting the biopharmaceutical industry in its efforts to accelerate the long and costly processes for developing and improving production bioprocesses. As well, this modelling approach has been transposed into medical sciences to study the involvement of energy dysfunctions in Parkinson's disease, as well as into vegetable biotechnology for the study of genetic regulation in the potato.

Atefeh Ghorbaniaghdam carried out her research as part of her PhD thesis. She recently earned her PhD under the supervision of Mario Jolicoeur and Olivier Henry.

Mr. Jolicoeur is a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Polytechnique Montréal. He has published more than 80 scientific papers to date. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Applied Metabolic Engineering, and is a member of the NSERC Strategic Network for the Production of Single-Type Glycoform Monoclonal Antibodies, which partly funded the study.

Mr. Henry is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Polytechnique Montréal. He has published more than 20 scientific papers.

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