SURFACE ENHANCED MICROCARRIERS FOR LOW ADHESION CELLS

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Our current customers in the human pharmaceutical industry like the performance of our porcine gelatin coated microcarriers but find any animal protein unacceptable. Our current customers in the animal health industry would prefer that the amount of foreign-animal protein be reduced, ideally to zero. We, therefore, see a critical need to (a) replace animal proteins, (b) promote cell attachment, and (c) support growth of low adhesive cells in low-serum or serum-free media. Research directed toward commercialization of this new product is the goal of this proposal. When completed we will achieve the commercial success indicated, i.e., reduce the impact of a Swedish competitor's aggressive marketing. The goals of the applied research described herein are three-fold. 1. Perform research directed toward a new type of animal protein free microcarrier that will have better cell growth supporting characteristics than either the SoloHill porcine collagen coated microcarrier or the Pharmacia collagen coated charged microcarrier. This new coating will be ProNectin-F or the equivalent. 2. Perform research directed toward incorporating the correct amount of electrical charge on ProNectin-F coated microcarrier beads, using polylysine or similar reagents. 3. Perform research to reduce manufacturing costs, allowing SoloHill to expand market share on a worldwide basis. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: SoloHill is the largest domestic manufacturer of microcarrier beads, a direct result of prior SBIR grants. SoloHill needs to develop a new microcarrier which will meet two needs of the pharmaceutical industry: (1) promote attachment and support growth of low adhesive cells and (2) perform this function in low-serum or serum- free media. This performance, when achieved without the use of animal protein coatings will exceed that of our Swedish competitor and will have critical commercial relevance. An animal protein free microcarrier is needed, e.g. ProNectin-F coating with charge incorporated via polylysine or similar cationic polymer activation.