SilViA - redesigning cells for biomanufacturing

Background

Mammalian cells are used as factories to produce a wide range of high-value products, including vaccines, gene therapies, and proteins to treat cancer.  Fields such as cellular agriculture and cell therapy also rely on mammalian cell-derived products. Due to the inherent complexity of these cells, precisely controlling their behaviour in industrial processes presents significant challenges. Accordingly, they are often associated with extremely high costs and failure rates, preventing many products from ever reaching the market.

Solution

We precisely redesign mammalian cells for industrial applications to increase product yields, reduce costs and embed predictability in process design. Our three-step SilViA platform quickly identifies and fixes the problems that are limiting cell factory performance:

• In SILico analysis – bioinformatics platform developed over 10+ years to comprehensively understand how cells respond to products and processes, identifying critical cellular capacities.
• In VItro testing – proprietary diagnostic test kit identifies the cellular components that are limiting key outputs such as cell growth and productivity.
• In Action – precision engineering technology specifically controls identified components to enhance product yield and quality, fitting seamlessly into existing manufacturing platforms.

Applications

We have a successful track record of working with companies to help them gain sophisticated control of their cell factories, and we are developing off-the-shelf solutions for common manufacturing problems. We are applying our technology to:

• Recombinant protein production in CHO cells.
• AAV production in HEK cells.
• Cell therapy.
• Tissue engineering.
• Cellular agriculture.