Technology "unleashes" industry, talent "creates" the future -- 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Animal Cell and Tissue Engineering Laboratory of East China University of Science and Technology

From November 26 to 27, 2016, the Animal Cell and Tissue Engineering Research Laboratory of the State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering of East China University of Science and Technology held a grand celebration of its 30th anniversary. Professor Tan Wensong, Director of the Laboratory, President of Zhangjiang Institute of Modern Biotechnology of East China University of Science and Technology, and Chairman of Shanghai BioEngine Sci-Tech Co., LTD., and Professor Zhou Yan and Professor Cai Haibo attended the event. Prof. Zhiyou Wen from Iowa State University, Dr. Anli Ouyang, chief expert of bioprocess from Eli Lilly and Company, and more than 50 students from industry and academia at home and abroad such as GE Healthcare Life Sciences, Novartis, WuXi AppTec New Drug Development Co. On the 26th, they visited the State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering of East China University of Science and Technology and exchanged ideas; on the 27th, they saw the R&D service platform and pilot plant of Zhangjiang Institute of Modern Biotechnology of East China University of Science and Technology, namely Shanghai BIOENGINE.

On the 26th, Prof. Tan Wensong and other students took a group photo. Prof. Tan Wensong (first row, fourth from right), Prof. Zhou Yan (first row, third from right), Prof. Cai Haibo (first row, second from right)

On the 27th, Prof. Tan Wensong (second from right) took a group photo with students' representatives

Thirty years of sharpening the sword for astonishing success
Looking back at the 30 years of development of the Animal Cell and Tissue Engineering Laboratory, "industry-oriented and future-oriented" has always been its development goal. Specifically, the goal is to promote the development of China's biomedical industry, provide support for critical technologies and engineering talents that are urgently needed by the industry, such as recombinant proteins and antibodies, virus vaccines, etc., and actively reserve core engineering technologies that are relevant to the future industrialization of stem cells and tissue engineering. So far, more than 100 master's and doctoral students have left the laboratory and are active in various fields of the biomedical industry at home and abroad.

In 1986, when the national "863" program (high-tech research and development program) was launched, biotechnology was listed as the first of the eight major programs and became the top priority of China's high-tech development, and the Animal Cell Research Laboratory (now the Animal Cell and Tissue Engineering Laboratory) was born, but the initial development was a little bumpy. Biotechnology in China started in the 1970s. Like developed countries, modern biotechnology such as gene recombination and cell fusion was the focus of research, among which animal cell-related research technology was particularly complex. Due to the level of science and technology at that time, animal cells had deficiencies such as complicated gene construction, low culture density, low product expression, and uncompetitive production cost, which were difficult to overcome for a while, so the country did not pay enough attention to them. The introduction of two recombinant yeast hepatitis B vaccine production lines from Merck around 1990 made the animal cell-related research in the cradle even more difficult so the other two animal cell culture technology research teams established in China in the 1990s had to withdraw from the historical stage one after another. It was not until 2003, with the rapid development of foreign therapeutic antibody drug industries, that China's animal cell-related research work was gradually ushered into the light. Today, Huali's Animal Cell and Tissue Engineering Laboratory are still the only one in China that has mastered the key technology of large-scale and high-density animal cell culture and its bioreactor engineering, carrying a heavy but unspeakable responsibility for thirty years.

The essence of 30 years as one day is perhaps what people often say, "love one's profession and do one's job", even if it is difficult, we have to face it. The persistence of the team and the persistence of its head, Professor Tan, are the same. Under the leadership of Prof. Tan, the team practices the goal of being "industry-oriented and future-oriented". While highlighting the advantages and characteristics of large-scale animal cell culture processes and bioreactor engineering, we actively explore new fields such as stem cell bioengineering and human tissue engineering. We have developed personalized serum-free and protein-free culture mediums with clear composition and independent intellectual property rights, broken through the technical problems of high-density animal cell culture process and its bioreactor scaling up and product quality control, and significantly improved the technical level of production processes of antibody drugs and virus vaccines in China. We have undertaken and completed more than 30 national and provincial research projects, such as the technology platform for large-scale and high-efficiency culture of animal cell expression products (Tenth National Major Science and Technology Project), the technology platform for pilot scale up and separation, and purification of animal cell expression products, and the key technology for large-scale culture and drug preparation of mammalian cells ("Major New Drug Creation "(National Science and Technology Major Project), cell culture-based H1N1 or other subtypes of influenza vaccine (National 863 Project), the large-scale serum-free culture of animal cells and expression product preparation technology (National Science and Technology Support Program), etc. We have also achieved a series of remarkable research results, most of which have been or are being implemented in domestic well-known biopharmaceutical companies for pilot testing and industrialization, and have gained high evaluation and trust.

Technology leadership, industry-academia innovation
The biopharmaceutical industry is the "sunrise industry that never fades". A simple set of market data can illustrate: in 2015, the global pharmaceutical market size exceeded trillion dollars, of which modern biotechnology drugs reached nearly 160 billion dollars, animal cell expression products accounted for more than 70%, only the antibody class of drugs that amounted to nearly 100 billion dollars, and will continue to maintain a growth rate of about 20% in the next few years. China is the world's richest country in biological resources, and also the world's largest medical market. The development trend of the whole biological industry is good, but how to convert this good into good needs to be seriously thought about.

In May 2015, the Shanghai Municipal Government released "Article 22 of Science and Innovation", i.e. "Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Science and Technology Innovation Center with Global Influence". The Animal Cell and Tissue Engineering Laboratory of Huali responded ahead of time and established Shanghai BIOENGINE initiated by Prof. Tan, taking the lead in the path of an "industry-university-research combination" of universities with distinctive characteristics. The "industry-university-research combination" is not a new thing, but it is a necessary way to transform innovation results. The core of innovation is talent, which comes from universities and serves the market. "Industry-university-research combination" connects industry and universities and integrates them into an organic whole. When the research team of Shanghai BIOENGINE was first established, outstanding graduate students and undergraduates from Huali's animal cell and tissue engineering research team were incorporated into the team upon graduation, which not only solved the problem of talent retention but also improved the efficiency of scientific research results transformation and industrial upgrading and development.

Of course, what shines is the technology and results created by the talents. Take animal cell culture technology as an example, the technical team of Shanghai BIOENGINE has mastered such key technologies as efficient development and design of serum-free and protein-free culture medium for animal cells, optimization of animal cell culture process, and product quality control, design and amplification of animal cell bioreactor and enhanced operation, high-density flow addition and continuous perfusion culture of animal cells, the efficient production process of virus vaccine, etc., and independently developed and optimized such key technologies. The team has developed key technologies for the development and optimization of virus vaccines. The serum-free culture medium independently developed by the team has been successfully produced domestically; the first fully automated and 10,000 upgraded culture medium powder production line built in China meets the international advanced technology level, breaking the situation that China is monopolized by foreign enterprises in the key technology and supporting industries of antibody-drug and virus vaccine industries. This is perhaps the so-called thick accumulation of success, which has given a satisfactory answer to the application of the research and development achievements of Huali Animal Cell and Tissue Engineering Research Laboratory to the industry in the past thirty years.

Thirty years of history is like a snap of the fingers. Looking back is based on the present and facing the future. Nowadays, as the country attaches more and more important to the biomedical industry, guiding policy documents such as "Made in China 2025", "Science and Technology 22", "Health China 2030" planning outline" and "Pharmaceutical Industry Development Planning Guide" have been released one after another. It is reasonable to believe that the Laboratory of Animal Cell and Tissue Engineering of East China University of Science and Technology will achieve more and more remarkable research results and technologies, and inject these results and technologies into the "engine" of Betsy, to promote and guarantee the rapid progress of China's biopharmaceuticals in the fields of tissue engineering/antibodies/vaccines.
Let's wait and see!

Introduction of Animal Cell and Tissue Engineering Laboratory of East China University of Science and Technology.
It is the first team in China to carry out scientific research and teaching of animal cell large-scale culture process and its bioreactor engineering and has a strong research team integrating chemical engineering, genetic engineering, chemical machinery, automatic control, cell molecular biology, biochemistry, etc. The research directions include animal Our research interests include animal cell culture process engineering (large-scale, high-density, serum-free culture technology) and its bioreactor engineering, stem cell bioengineering, and human tissue engineering, and we are committed to solving key scientific and technological problems such as modularization, engineering and industrialization of animal cell expression drugs, human stem cells and tissue engineering at the level of national strategic needs.

Introduction of BIOENGINE
BIOENGINE is a leading biotechnology company in China, dedicated to providing technical solutions for the pilot, industrialization, and industrialization of biopharmaceutical products such as antibodies/recombinant proteins, vaccines, stem cells/tissue engineering, etc., and to realize and guarantee the localization of key raw materials and equipment. The company adheres to the business philosophy of "technology-led and service-driven" and is mainly engaged in the R&D and services of key technologies in the following aspects: (1) large-scale, high-density, serum-free culture of animal cells; (2) raw materials for personalized serum-free culture media; (3) bioreactor equipment production and manufacturing, etc. Relying on the State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering of East China University of Science and Technology and Zhangjiang Institute of Modern Biotechnology of East China University of Science and Technology, BETIC has successfully applied the key technologies of large-scale, high-density, and serum-free culture of animal cells to many domestic antibody drug and virus vaccine manufacturers. At present, we have built and put into operation an innovative R&D and application service center with a total area of over 2,500 square meters, including a technical service platform with an annual service capacity of 20 antibody/vaccine and other projects, and a pilot production base with an annual capacity of 6 million liters of personalized serum-free culture medium, and the indexes of all technologies and products have reached an international advanced level.

Source: BioValley Date: November 28, 2016