Horizon Discovery is teaming up with Hisun Pharmaceuticals to optimize Horizon’s newly engineered CHO bioproduction cell line for commercial use. Hisun will be using Horizon’s glutamine synthetase (GS) double knockout cell line for use in therapeutic antibody manufacturing.

GS is a critical enzyme in the metabolism of the amino acid L-glutamine, which is often used as a selection marker in the production of recombinant proteins. GS-negative CHO cell lines, Horizon and Hisun say, work well for stringent selection of high-producing lines and accelerating the development of cell lines within the bioproduction industry, offering advantages over traditional methods that use an expensive and toxic chemical inhibitor of GS.

Horizon, which engineered the CHO cell line using its GENESIS™ gene editing technology, claims that the precision afforded by GENESIS results in an optimal final genotype, with complete control over the desired genomic alterations and with no unwanted off-target effects.

“Horizon’s gene engineering technology is unique in the level of precision it can deliver, and therefore offers great advantages in quality and efficiency for industrial cell-line engineering,” Haibin Wang, svp of Hisun Pharmaceuticals, said.

“Cell-line development has yet to match the gains made in media and feed technology development,” added Brian Burke, Ph.D., business development manager at Horizon. “Precision gene editing will be a key driver for cell line development, and by selective partnering with leaders like Hisun, Horizon intends to accelerate this process.”

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