Lonza officials say the company’s new GS Effex® cell line is designed to help biotech firms develop more sophisticated therapeutic antibodies. Combined with good cell growth and the ability to produce therapeutic antibodies with increased potency, the new cell line provides a solution for therapeutic development from discovery stage research through to commercial manufacturing, according to Ulrich Osswald, vice president, licensing.
Osswald also noted that the cell line produces Fc domains free of fucose, which increases the antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) function and therapeutic potency of the final antibody. GS Effex is available under license or as a complete service offering.
“The GS Effex cell line provides a reliable protein expression platform with the needs of our customers in mind,” added Atul Mohindra, PhD, head of biologics R&D. “This cell line enables the efficient production of monoclonal antibodies with increased ADCC, while also delivering the required product quality and efficacy profile.”
ChemisTwin
Separately, MilliporeSigma, the U.S. and Canada life science business of Merck KGaA, introduced ChemisTwinTM, a digital reference materials platform designed to perform automatic analysis of samples’ purity, identification, and degradation of compounds through calibrated algorithm-based digital references.
With digital signatures for more than 1,500 reference materials, this automation and calibration tool helps scientists ensure the quality and safety of medicines from the earliest stages of research and development through quality control and quality assurance testing, said Jean-Charles Wirth, head of science & lab solutions.
“Increasing adoption of digital technologies, powered by high-quality data, is disrupting the life science industry. Being able to digitize reference materials for the first time is a giant step forward towards safeguarding the world’s medicines and consumer products,” continued Wirth. “ChemisTwin is easy to use and intuitive, all of which contributes to advancing scientific research, product development, quality control, and regulatory compliance.”
Certified reference materials are a cornerstone of the multi-billion-dollar quality testing market. They play a crucial role in ensuring the accuracy, reliability, and comparability of measurements and analyses in the life science industry. They also are used as benchmarks or points of comparison to identify and quantify compounds, ensuring medicines and other products (such as water and food & beverage) are safe, contaminant-free, and performing as promised.
While the benefits of using reference materials are many, they require scientists to perform time-consuming and repetitive tasks, such as precision weighing, interpretation, and documentation, which can lead to errors and time lost to repeat experiments, explained Wirth.
