Systems biotechnology of baculovirus-producing insect cells

Dissertation presented to obtain the Ph.D degree in Ciências da Engenharia e Tecnologia, especialidade Biotecnologia

critical step in the biopharmaceutical industry is the capacity to properly manufacture biological products in animal cell cultures. The ability to exploit the full potential of the underlying “cellular factories” is essential to reduce manufacturing costs and improve yield and product quality, thus freeing up resources to pursue other added value activities, such as clinical development and pharmacovigilance of new products. Bioprocess optimization efforts have mostly relied on empirical experience and rational, hypothesis-driven studies, rather than by fully leveraging the knowledge of how complex cells behave in culture. Despite the vast amount of information available on different cellular features, specific productivity improvements have been essentially incremental. The relatively recent developments in Systems Biology and computational methodologies present a paradigm-shifting opportunity to develop biotechnology processes with high efficiencies in a consistent, systematic way. (...)