Wrinkled non-spherical microparticles as a new microcarrier for cell culture applications in Sanofi Pasteur

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Mammalian cells used to produce various vaccines in bioreactors are typically grown on a support matrixtermed a microcarrier, which can be made of a number of different materials including DEAE-dextran, glass,polystyrene plastic, acrylamide, collagen, and alginate. Commercial microcarriers are only available in smoothsurface, spherical forms. Spheres have the smallest surface-area-to-volume ratio, and therefore the least surfacespace available for cells to attach for a given volume. In addition to their spherical shape, the smooth surface ofavailable microcarriers makes it difficult to increase the surface area for cell culture capacity improvement.Another challenge in current microcarrier-based cell culture is that the microcarrier surface needs to bechemically modified prior to cell attachment and detachment (recovery) - often involving expensive enzymes.The Hwang group at Ryerson has developed a technique that can produce microcarriers with designed shapesand tuneable surface wrinkles that can significantly increase their surface area. When used for cell culture,these microcarriers can greatly improve cell attaching capacity. In addition, the microcarrier surface is notchemically modified, which simplifies the cell attaching and recovery process without using enzymes.Sanofi Pasteur is a world leading vaccine manufacturing company, and its head office in Toronto has Canada'slargest vaccine R&D facility. Sanofi manufactures several vaccines through mammalian cell culture usingmicrocarriers. This Engage grant will enable Sanofi and the Ryerson team to begin working towardssuccessfully integrating these non-spherical-microcarrier-based technologies into their vaccine production. As aresult, cell culture efficiency and vaccine production at Sanofi can be significantly improved in the future.