You may have noticed that a good number of our academic associates this year have dealt with translational issues, meaning they are looking for ways to translate promising laboratory findings into scalable industrial processes. While scientific breakthroughs often begin at the bench, their real impact depends on whether they can be reliably reproduced, optimized, and expanded to meet market demand. Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies represent one of the clearest examples of this challenge. These life-saving biopharmaceuticals are essential for treating conditions such as cancer, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases. Yet their production requires extraordinarily sophisticated manufacturing platforms capable of delivering both quality and consistency at scale.
Among the cell factories that enable this, Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells remain the global gold standard. These mammalian cell lines are engineered to produce monoclonal antibodies with the complex structural and post-translational characteristics required for therapeutic use in other mammals (i.e., humans). However, moving from a productive cell line to an industrially viable manufacturing process requires a long sequence of optimization and validation steps. Scientists must understand how culture conditions affect cell growth, productivity, metabolism, viability, and ultimately product quality before a process can be confidently scaled up and transferred to industrial production.
Fellow Marcia Olga Carrasco Rosso carried out her UNU-BIOLAC fellowship at the Instituto de Biotecnología (IBT) of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). Her project, Impact of Osmotic Stress on Therapeutic Monoclonal Antibody Production in Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) Cells, addressed a critical question in bioprocess development: how do changes in osmotic conditions affect the performance of antibody-producing CHO cells during fed-batch cultivation, the very culture strategy most commonly employed in industrial biopharmaceutical manufacturing?
Her results showed that sustained osmotic stress significantly reduced culture performance, whereas short hyperosmotic pulses were well tolerated by the cells. These findings contribute valuable knowledge to the optimization toolbox required for future scale-up efforts, helping define operating windows that maintain robust cellular performance while potentially enhancing productivity. Equally important, the fellowship enabled her to acquire practical expertise in industrially relevant analytical and cultivation techniques that support the development of future biopharmaceutical capabilities, thereby representing an important contribution to technology transfer in the region: A key objective of the project was to support the establishment and strengthening of biotechnology capacities at the Universidad Católica Boliviana "San Pablo". In this sense, Marcia's work forms part of a broader effort to expand Bolivia's scientific and technological infrastructure in advanced bioprocessing and biopharmaceutical production, helping to bridge knowledge gaps that have traditionally limited regional participation in high-value biotechnology sectors.
This achievement also highlights the outstanding role that UNAM continues to play as a source of technological innovation, advanced training, and knowledge transfer for Latin America and the Caribbean. The university has consistently demonstrated its commitment not only to excellent science but also to ensuring that scientific knowledge advances toward practical, scalable applications. The emphasis placed by the Instituto de Biotecnología on bioprocess engineering, fed-batch operation, metabolic characterization, and scale-up considerations provides the ideal environment to train the next generation of biotechnology professionals capable of translating discoveries into real-world solutions.
UNU-BIOLAC warmly congratulates Marcia Olga Carrasco Rosso on the successful completion of this fellowship and on the dedication she demonstrated throughout her stay in Mexico. We also extend our appreciation to her mentor, M.Sc. Emiliano Balderas Ramírez, to her academic supervisor at Universidad Católica Boliviana "San Pablo", Dr. Georgina Aurelia Chávez Lizárraga, and to Dr. Octavio Tonatiuh and the entire team at the Instituto de Biotecnología for their guidance, generosity, and commitment to training. Their collective efforts have helped advance not only an important research project, but also the regional circulation of knowledge and expertise that will strengthen biotechnology in Bolivia and across Latin America and the Caribbean.
