High Expression System

Cell Line Development

A Mammalian Expression System for Continuous Manufacturing with Extraordinary Titers

The J.CHOTM High Expression System combines extremely high titers with the best product quality allowing our partners to achieve Cost of Goods Manufactured (COGM) below $50/g using our continuous manufacturing platform.

High Productivity & Ideal Product Quality

Our proprietary CHO-K1 glutamine synthetase-knockout host cell lines are adapted to grow in serum-free media. We select the lead host cell line for high expression while alternative host cell lines are available allowing us to match our partners’ specific product quality requirements.

The J.CHO™ High Expression System delivers titers of 4+ g/L/day in perfusion, equivalent to approximately 30 g/L in fed-batch mode. This extraordinary productivity represents a 75% reduction in industry standard COGM. The host cell lines grow to remarkably high cell densities in Just - Evotec Biologics’ upstream perfusion process. Our high-throughput automated workflow allows us to deliver research cell banks in as little as 14 weeks.

Key Features

  1. Engineered GS knockout CHO-K1 host cell lines capable of delivering specific productivities of more than 50 pg/cell/day and growing at target densities of 60-100 million cells/mL
  2. Transposon-based expression vectors with strong promoter sequences allow stable integration and high expression of genes-of-interest
  3. Proprietary chemically defined, protein-free, and dual sourced perfusion cell culture media designed with cost-efficiency in mind
  4. Royalty-free cell lines optimized for our upstream perfusion platform process and scalable directly from 3L to 1000L bioreactors for clinical or commercial production
Cell Line Development Graph

Comparison of antibody yields in a 20-day continuous perfusion culture using an industry-standard CHO cell line.

Types of Molecules

  1. Monoclonal antibodies
  2. Bispecific and multi-specific antibodies
  3. Fc-fusion proteins
  4. Single-chain Fv-antibody fusion proteins

Refining Product Quality

The J.CHO™ High Expression System provides partners with additional opportunities to refine the product quality attributes of their candidate. Our additional cell line development capabilities include:

  • FUT8 Knock Out Cell Line enabling afucosylated antibodies for enhanced ADCC and improved efficacy
  • Inducible Cell Lines for the controlled protein expression of cyto-toxic products used in next-generation therapies
  • Additional advanced glycoengineered cell lines capable of delivering a range of glycan modifications on biosimilar candidates that match those of innovator products

Integrating Product and Cell Line Development

Integrating Cell Line Development with our J.MD Molecule Design suite of services allows us to produce multiple variants of the candidate antibody with improved developability characteristics. Benefits include: 

  • Identification of antibody candidate variants with excellent expressability properties that has shown to increase titer by 3-fold compared to parental sequences.
  • More representative material produced for testing by expression in stable pools versus from transient expressing cell line
  • Saves up to two months from timelines by combining candidate development with cell line development

Meet Alicia Barker, Scientist I, P&PD Cell Line Development. 

Philip Boehme

Philip Boehme

EVP Partnering & Transformation

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Just – Evotec Biologics is a mission-driven Business Unit of Evotec with the aim of radically improving access to biologics through a de-risked, agile approach, coupled with significantly lower manufacturing cost. Over the years we have advanced an industry-transforming bioprocessing platform, which we leverage with our partners to drive what we call the paradigm shift in biologics.