Mass Customization Biomanufacturing Process

"Chesapeake PERL, Inc aims to develop baculovirus-based expression in insect larvae from bench-scale to mass manufacturing. The technology platform consists of automated mass insect rearing, and inoculation combined with monitoring of protein expressionlevels in larvae via a fluorescent reporter. This allows the development of "mass customization" for recombinant protein manufacturing in insect larvae that will reduce costs by nearly an order of magnitude. "Mass customization" refers to a system whereone process can make several different customized products and vary the scale of production from one to many units. The key to mass customization is that the process remains constant irrespective of product and scale. The Phase II proposal focuses on thea) development of vectors suitable for expression of different types of proteins, b) building and testing of harvesting equipment, c) development of equipment for sorting, based on fluorescence signal, d) development of protein purification protocolsstarting with larval material, e) a flow diagram with mass balance. The anticipated end result is an economically favorable process for recombinant protein manufacturing."