NGS Expert Blog

Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) derived cell lines are currently the most popular expression systems for biopharmaceutical protein production, including monoclonal antibodies, growth factors, hormones and enzymes. CHO cell lines have gained this dominant role, because their enzyme sets perform human-compatible post translational modifications and because protocols for transfection and clone selection are well established.

Recently, the draft genome sequence of the CHO-K1 cell line was published in Nature Biotechnology. The Illumina sequencing data have been assembled to a 2.45 Gbp draft genome. The sequence will probably facilitate CHO-cell line engineering to improve yield and quality of protein production.

However, having performed non-targeted insertion of constructs in eukaryotic cell lines (like CHO-cells) or organisms, or studying virus integration in eukaryotes requires a method for analysis of the integration sites and quality and copy number of the insert. Primer walking on genomic DNA is very problematic and therefore does not provide the answer.

Therefore we currently develop an assay for easy and straight forward analysis of insertions sites and the inserted sequences. First test projects are running….

We are optimistic that we can inform you soon about the outcome.