Since the introduction of recombinant human growth hormone and insulin a quarter century ago, protein therapeutics has greatly broadened the ho- zon of health care. Many patients suffering with life-threatening diseases or chronic dysfunctions, which were medically untreatable not long ago, can attest to the wonder these drugs have achieved. Although the ?rst generation of p- tein therapeutics was produced in recombinant Escherichia coli, most recent products use mammalian cells as production hosts. Not long after the ?rst p- duction of recombinant proteins in E. coli, it was realized that the complex tasks of most post-translational modi?cations on proteins could only be ef?ciently carried out in mammalian cells. In the 1990s, we witnessed a rapid expansion of mammalian-cell-derived protein therapeutics, chie?y antibodies. In fact, it has been nearly a decade since the market value of mammalian-cell-derived protein therapeutics surpassed that of those produced from E. coli. A common characteristic of recent antibody products is the relatively large dose required for effective therapy, demanding larger quantities for the treatment of a given disease. This, coupled with the broadening repertoire of protein drugs, has rapidly expanded the quantity needed for clinical applications. The increasing demand for protein therapeutics has not been met exclusively by construction of new manufacturing plants and increasing total volume capacity. More - portantly the productivity of cell culture processes has been driven upward by an order of magnitude in the past decade.

Covers trends in modern biotechnology All aspects of this interdisciplinary technology, where knowledge, methods and expertise are required from chemistry, biochemistry, microbiology, genetics, chemical engineering and computer science, are treated More information as well as the electronic version available at springer.com

Inhalt
Established Bioprocesses for Producing Antibodies as a Basis for Future Planning.- Fedbatch Culture and Dynamic Nutrient Feeding.- The Push-to-Low Approach for Optimization of High-Density Perfusion Cultures of Animal Cells.- Towards Industrial Application of Quasi Real-Time Metabolic Flux Analysis for Mammalian Cell Culture.- Engineering Cells for Cell Culture Bioprocessing Physiological Fundamentals.