Mammalian cells are widely used for the production of recombinant proteins for research, diagnostics, and biologic pharmaceuticals. The clonal selection of high-producing cells is a bottleneck in the development of new production processes. Current techniques for the selection of clones are time-consuming, labour-intensive and costly. We present a microfluidic platform for clonal analysis that provides combined measurements of cell-specific protein production and proliferation using Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) suspension cells. This cell culture array technology can screen hundreds of single cells simultaneously in nanovolume chambers. An immunocapture bead assay in each 4.1 nanoliter culture chamber rapidly identifies highly productive cells. We show that the high effective concentration of a single cell inoculum in a nanoliter volume chamber (2.4 x 105 cell/ml) provides an enhanced cell culture environment and higher plating efficiency. This technology has been applied to the clonal selection of monoclonal antibody-producing CHO cells.

High-throughput clonal selection of antibody-producing CHO cells using a microfluidic cell culture platform

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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