Bioreactor brings on-demand portability to biopharmaceutical drug production

By manipulating yeast into producing specific proteins, a new portable device developed at MIT can produce a range of biopharmaceutical drugs on demand. 

The system would grant remote or on-the-move medical professionals access to vaccines and other therapies that are normally produced in large fermentation plants.

At the core of the system is a particular strain of yeast known as Pichia pastoris, which has been modified to react to different chemical triggers to produce one of two therapeutic proteins. When exposed to estrogen beta-estradiol, the yeast expressed recombinant human growth hormone (rHGH), while exposure to methanol triggered production of the protein interferon.

"Imagine you were on Mars or in a remote desert, without access to a full formulary, you could program the yeast to produce drugs on demand locally," says Tim Lu, the senior author of the paper. "We altered the yeast so it could be more easily genetically modified, and could include more than one therapeutic in its repertoire."

Inside the device, the yeast cells are kept in a tiny microbioreactor fitted out with a microfluidic chip that monitors cell density, oxygen levels, temperature and pH balance to maintain the best environment for the cells to grow. When it comes time to brew a treatment, the doctors simply add a liquid containing the required chemical trigger into the device.

Ultimately, the portability of the device could make it a handy partner to produce critical vaccines at the point of care where this was previously impossible, including on the battlefield, inside ambulances, in remote areas and in developing countries. The team is now examining the potential for the system to be used in combinatorial treatments that involve multiple therapeutics, such as antibodies, being used together.