Paclitaxel production through plant cell culture:
An exciting approach to harnessing biodiversity*
K. Venkat
Phyton, Inc., 95 Brown Road, Ithaca, NY USA and Rutgers University,
New Brunswick, NJ USA
E-mail: [email protected]
or [email protected]
Abstract: The plant kingdom has historically been a major
source of valuable medicinal compounds and healing agents. Unfortunately
these compounds often occur in low yields in nature; further they
require complex isolation and purification procedures. Plant cell
culture technology offers a potential means to address these problems.
Although elements of this technology have been around for many years,
its widespread commercial use have not been possible due to a number
of factors. Recent developments have brought this technology much
closer to commercial application to both drug discovery and large
scale manufacturing of therapeutic compounds.
Phyton has invested more than 200 man-years
of effort to address the commercial issues of plant cell culture
technology. Under a long-term collaborative relationship with
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Phyton is engaged in the development
and commercialization of a plant cell culture process for
the production of paclitaxel (the active ingredient of TaxolÒ
; Taxol is the registered trademark of Bristol-Myers Squibb
Co.). Through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Phyton Gesellschaft
fur Biotechnik mbH, Phyton operates the world's largest dedicated
plant cell culture production facility in Germany. Several
key issues relating to the development and practice of such
a commercial plant cell culture process will be discussed.
The role of natural genetic diversity of Taxus genus
in developing elite Taxol-producing cell lines will be highlighted.
The plant kingdom is characterized by a tremendous
biodiversity arising out of a large pool of genetic information
which in turn encodes for a broad spectrum of phytochemicals.
Plant cell culture technology can be effectively used to tap
into this chemical diversity resulting in a large array of
potentially useful pharmaceutical product leads. Application
of this approach to novel taxanes will be illustrated.
Phyton has also developed a number of supporting
technologies and related capabilities as part of its technology
platform. A proprietary cryopreservation technology is being employed
to reliably store and retrieve plant germplasm and elite cell lines.
Opportunities to develop new therapeutic products by combining biodiversity
with such new techniques will be outlined.
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