Light-Controlled Gene Expression Platform Reportedly Doubles Standard Fed-Batch Manufacturing Performance

Prolific Machines, an Emeryville, CA-based biotech company focusing on light-controllable biomanufacturing powered by optogenetics, reported a productivity milestone of 21 g/L in a 15-day intensified fed-batch CHO run for a monoclonal antibody (mAb). This is more than double the industry standard of below 10 g/L, and the company is on track to reach its goal of 25 g/L in fed-batch by the end of 2026, according to company officials.

Prolific’s light-controlled biomanufacturing platform uses light and optogenetics to directly and dynamically control gene expression inside living cells. Unlike conventional biomanufacturing approaches, this technology gives developers precise, real-time control over when and how much protein a cell produces, says Deniz Kent, PhD, co-founder and CEO.

“To our knowledge, this result represents the highest reported titer for an antibody produced in a fed-batch format,” continues Kent. “The real opportunity lies in next-generation complex biologics such as multispecifics, cytokines, and fusion proteins. These molecules represent more than 50% of today’s early pipelines, yet developability challenges and chronically low yields continue to compromise their commercial viability. We’ve shown up to three-fold yield increases in that space, and are now working with multiple partners to enable high-yield manufacturing of promising molecules.”

“After more than 20 years in the industry, I’m proud to have been one of the first scientists to have witnessed fed-batch titers exceed 20 grams per liter,” adds Julien Meissonnier, independent director for Prolific Machines, and former CSO of Catalent at the time it launched its GPEx^® Lightning CHO cell line development platform. “To emphasize the strength of Deniz’s team’s results: in my experience in the industry, I’ve never seen data of this quality at this stage. This is clearly different and has a great potential to enable more complex biologics to reach patients and become the standard for the future of biomanufacturing.”

 The “record-setting run demonstrated exceptional process robustness, maintaining approximately 87% viability at harvest, reaching a peak viable cell density of approximately 33 million cells/mL, and sustaining a specific productivity of around 60 pg/cell/day,” notes a Prolific spokesperson, who cites these metrics in support of the strength of the company’s intensified process design and the underlying stability of its production platform.

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