title: A serum-free Vero production platform for a chimeric virus vaccine candidate.
abstract: MedImmune Vaccines has engineered a live, attenuated chimeric virus that could prevent infections caused by parainfluenza virus type 3 (PIV3) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), causative agents of acute respiratory diseases in infants and young children. The work here details the development of a serum-free Vero cell culture production platform for this virus vaccine candidate. Efforts to identify critical process parameters and optimize culture conditions increased infectious virus titers by approximately 2 log(10) TCID(50)/ml over the original serum-free process. In particular, the addition of a chemically defined lipid concentrate to the pre-infection medium along with the shift to a lower post-infection cultivation temperature increased virus titers by almost 100-fold. This improved serum-free process achieved comparable virus titers to the serum-supplemented process, and demonstrated consistent results upon scale-up: Vero cultures in roller bottles, spinner flasks and bioreactors reproducibly generated maximum infectious virus titers of 8 log(10) TCID(50)/ml.
authors.affiliation: MedImmune Vaccines, Inc., 3055 Patrick Henry Drive, Santa Clara, CA, 95054, USA, iyuk@gene.com.
authors.forename: Inn H
authors.initials: IH
authors.lastname: Yuk
authors.forename: Gina B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ju
authors.forename: Inesse
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Sifi
authors.forename: Yvonne
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lam
authors.forename: Armida
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cortez
authors.forename: Danny
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Liebertz
authors.forename: J Michael
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Berry
authors.forename: Richard M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Schwartz