Towards Genome Engineering in Chinese Hamster Ovary Cells

Worth over $30 billion, therapeutic proteins, produced by recombinant mammalian cells, have been the fastest growing class of medicines in industrialized nations. Their importance in the health industry in the next decade will be ever greater as their reach expands, improving the quality of life of millions. Critical to the quality of the manufactured product and the robustness of the process is the producing cell. Over three quarters of these products are produced by CHO cells. Advances in DNA sequencing technology in the past few years have afforded the possibility of decoding the entire genome of these cells. Armed with the genome sequence information, one can contemplate specifically altering their sequence and even modifying their genome. This presentation will review genome and sequencing basics, highlight genome information processing, exemplify sequence utility and envision the potential impact of the genome on process advancement and innovation.