We have a special interest in developing biopharmaceutical processes using a system approach. The production of virus-like particles (VLP), a vaccine platform, was selected as an initial project. For this purpose, we use a bench bioreactor and insect cell/baculovirus expression system. We have already produced VLP of rabies, Zika, and SARS-CoV-2 viruses since the beginning of our group’s activities.
To assist research for scaling up the production from bench to industrial scale we also seek to optimize microorganisms’ performance and VLP production. Thus studying cell metabolism and oxygen consumption, using spectroscopy techniques for entire bioprocess monitoring and later modeling the data acquired, or even by statistical analyses of production parameters. For data modeling, we aim to use chemometric methods like Partial Least Squares (PLS) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN), or through phenomenological modeling.
In addition, we want to purify the VLPs produced using chromatography techniques to cover up and downstream of this biopharmaceutical process. After purification, there are also analyses to confirm the quality of this product from quantitative and qualitative aspects.
Laboratory’s building at EACH-USP.