The Perfect Hosts For Vaccine And Virus Expression: Insect Cell Expression Systems

By Laura Walls, PhD, Technical Project Leader, and Sharyn Farnsworth, MSc, Director of Upstream Development

The use of Baculovirus expression vector systems (BEVS) in insect cells is a highly efficient and scalable method for producing biologics. This technology is particularly effective in producing high concentrations of multi-protein subunit complexes that are challenging to express in other cell types and especially well-suited for manufacturing vaccines against rapidly mutating viruses.

FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies offers expertise and solutions for all stages of readiness, from process development to commercialization. They have extensive knowledge in utilizing BEVS for the production of viral vaccines and gene therapy vectors.

Virus-like particles (VLPs) have emerged as promising alternatives to traditional viral vaccines due to their safety and immunogenicity. BEVS is a well-established platform for manufacturing VLPs and offers several advantages over other expression platforms. The process involves co-transfecting insect cells with baculoviral genomic DNA and a plasmid containing the gene of interest, resulting in high-level production of the desired product.

Insect Cell Culture combined with BEVS is particularly advantageous for producing very large proteins and VLPs. FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies has a toolkit of solutions and expertise to ensure the success of insect cell programs. They can provide support in process development, optimization, scale-up, and commercialization of insect cell-based biologics.