A genome‐scale nutrient minimization forecast algorithm for controlling essential amino acid levels in CHO cell cultures

Abstract Mammalian cell culture processes rely heavily on empirical knowledge in which process control remains a challenge due to the limited characterization/understanding of cell metabolism and inability to predict the cell behaviors. This study facilitates control of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) processes through a forecast‐based feeding approach that predicts multiple essential amino acids levels in the culture from easily acquired viable cell density data. Multiple cell growth behavior forecast extrapolation approaches are considered with logistic curve fitting found to be the most effective. Next, the nutrient‐minimized CHO genome‐scale model is combined with the growth forecast model to generate essential amino acid forecast profiles of multiple CHO batch cultures. Comparison of the forecast with the measurements suggests that this algorithm can accurately predict the concentration of most essential amino acids from cell density measurement with error mitigated by incorporating off‐line amino acids concentration measurements. Finally, the forecast algorithm is applied to CHO fed‐batch cultures to support amino acid feeding control to control the concentration of essential amino acids below 1–2 mM for lysine, leucine, and valine as a model over a 9‐day fed batch culture while maintaining comparable growth behavior to an empirical‐based culture. In turn, glycine production was elevated, alanine reduced and lactate production slightly lower in control cultures due to metabolic shifts in branched‐chain amino acid degradation. With the advantage of requiring minimal measurement inputs while providing valuable and in‐advance information of the system based on growth measurements, this genome model‐based amino acid forecast algorithm represent a powerful and cost‐effective tool to facilitate enhanced control over CHO and other mammalian cell‐based bioprocesses.