CHO.SET® comprises synthetic promoters for product genes and matched selection marker promoters, functionally qualified in industry-standard GS-KO CHO host cell lines and processes. We work with you to select a focused set to suit your expression system and specific requirements.
Nothing about your workflow has to change. CHO.SET® promoters go into the vector you already have.
The promoter is arguably the single largest contributing genetic part to the rate of expression of a recombinant protein, yet a limited number of legacy promoters still serve every product and every CHO expression platform, barely changed in thirty years.
Adopt one set as your new standard or vary it where it matters.
Built for CHO biomanufacturing from the outset. More than 100 novel synthetic transgene promoters, designed element by element from rules developed over more than a decade of CHO research, with matched selection marker promoters designed alongside them.
Characterised in industry-standard systems across transient and stable CHO contexts, spanning transcriptional activities from well below to more than double CMV. Whatever level of expression a system needs, there is a CHO.SET® promoter built for it.
The promoters change. Backbone, gene order, host cell line, selection system and process do not. Each chain can run on the same or different promoter.
Instead of testing the full library, we recommend a set of typically six to twelve promoters with matched selection marker promoters, functionally qualified and ready to go into your own vector.
That is either our standard set, or one set composed from the part of the range you need: weaker promoters throughout, a broad range, or different levels for different chains.
If nothing in the library fits, we design new promoters to specification, whether that is an unusual selection system, a perfusion or intensified process, or a growth-phase-specific profile.
Functionally qualified in two industry-standard commercial GS-KO CHO host cell lines, each on its own process, CHO.SET® promoters increased cell-specific productivity by up to 5-fold over CMV/SV40.
Productivity improvements are not tied to a single platform. The promoter is the only element that changes, nothing else requires requalification.
No changes to your CLD and CLC workflows. No changes to your cGMP process.
The same CHO.SET® promoters increased titre for two archetypal IgG1 antibodies, one easy to express (trastuzumab) and one difficult (infliximab). A platform standard, working across molecules, not just for one.
Antibody formats keep getting more complex, and a one-size-fits-all option is unlikely to be the right answer to every expression challenge. Where a product needs its chains expressed at different levels, or needs less expression rather than more, a range of defined promoter activities is the obvious solution. The CHO.SET® library gives you these options, offering the flexibility CMV cannot.
Our selection marker promoters are designed to work with the transgene promoters rather than against them, so selection is efficient and pools grow out faster. In both GS-KO CHO host cell lines tested, CHO.SET® pools reached the recovery threshold at least three days ahead of the CMV/SV40 control. Modest on one programme – hugely beneficial when amplified in a platform setting.
A pool-for-tox strategy, running the IND-enabling toxicology batch from the stable pool instead of waiting for a clone, depends on the pool making enough material. With CHO.SET® pools we achieve up to 75 mg of IgG1 in a 30 mL shake-flask culture, before any clone selection, with random integration and without adopting a transposon system. The same productivity at 20 to 200 L is enough to bring formulation and downstream development work forward, and shorten the critical path to the start of your tox studies.
A recommended set of promoters for your expression system and your requirements within 1 week of project start.
Parallel testing of a wider combination of synthetic promoters for challenging proteins.
Functionally qualified promoters and recommended combinations, ready to deploy in your system.
You are licensing sequences, not adopting a platform. No protocol changes, no cell line or equipment changes. Run the same established workflows, and you can bring CHO.SET® into a programme you have already started.
A licence to test a small selected set of CHO.SET® promoters in your own vector, host cell line and process. Fixed fee, defined scope, no material transfer, no obligation.
Take the promoters forward for your programme or platform. We are flexible and pragmatic about how that is structured: an outright buyout, or payments tied to clinical and commercial milestones.
An unusual selection system, an intensified or perfusion process, a growth-phase-specific profile, or an expression behaviour the library does not cover. Promoter design is what we do: tell us what you need and we design it, fee for service.
One of the people who designed and tested these promoters goes through your protein expression needs, your host cell line and your selection system with you.
A small, focused set of promoters (up to twelve) with matched selection marker promoters, either our standard set or one set composed to your requirements.
Your vector, your process, your call. Once you are happy with what you see, we move to an R&D and commercial licence.
If questions or problems come up while you are using CHO.SET® promoters, support does not stop. A team of PhD scientists who work on this daily, available if you need them.
