Presentation: Novel Avian Cell Line for Human Vaccine Production

Dr Manfred Reiter, Sr. Director, Process Development, Baxter Innovations GmbH  joined us at the World Vaccine Congress in Washington to discuss the novel avian cell line as a means of human vaccine production.

The background of avian cell line technologies is an interesting one. Important vaccines and viral vectors are still produced in embryonated chicken eggs or primary chicken embryo fibroblasts. The primary avian tissue for virus replication is provided by SPF (specific pathogen free) production plants, which are expensive and the quality of the supply material is often hard to control or restricted. For this reason, problems with inconsistency and shortage of supply do occur. Despite this, avian cell lines are a modern option for vaccine manufacturing and could replace egg and primary fibroblast technology.

Why develop a Quail cell line? Tell us your views below.

The chicken is a domesticated form of Red Jungle-fowl so carry the genome of the endogenous retrovirus RAV-O as DNA sequences integrated into host chromosomes. A continuous quail cell line was generated by UV-treatment. The cells were adapted to suspension culture, so the production and robustness of the manufacturing process is improved. Characterizations of these cells demonstrate that they are free of adventitious agents. The cell line is also no tumorigenic and fulfils all critical regulatory requirements. High titers can also be achieved using this cell line with a broad range of viruses e.g. Influenza and Vaccinia.

Why not download the full presentation and discover more about the novel avian cell line for human vaccine production and also the exciting use of Quail cell lines:
• Exploring how an immortalized continuous cell line, derived from quail cells was developed for vaccine production
• Understanding the significance of the cell line being free from genetically modified sequences
• Looking to the future and how to achieved scale up to commercial scale