The increasing demand for recombinant therapeutic proteins highlights the need to constantly improve the efficiency and yield of these biopharmaceutical products from mammalian cells, which is fully achievable only through proper understanding of cellular functioning. Towards this end, the current study exploited a combined metabolomics and in silico modelling approach to gain a deeper insight into the cellular mechanisms of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) for high density cultures.

The Patheon process for high density cell culture (Patheon XD^® Upstream Processing (USP) technology) can result in up to a 25 fold increase in bioreactor output (cell density). The proprietary Patheon XD^® USP bioprocess may be further improved, if a systems biology driven understanding of the fermentation process is achieved. Understanding of the byproducts and metabolites produced, that favour high density will be used to generate an optimised bioprocesses.