The AltHost Consortium

Founded in 2018, AltHost Consortium is based within the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Created to fuel efficient, fast, and predictable manufacturing of high-quality recombinant protein drugs and vaccines, the Consortium intends to realize next-generation agile solutions for biologic manufacturing. The Consortium comprises Amgen, Biogen, Sanofi, Genentech, Pfizer Inc., and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Through the leadership of Professor J. Christopher Love at MIT, they work collaboratively to further experimentation, reduce research and development costs, flexibly address industry needs, including improved product quality, and increased volumetric productivity of high-quality drugs and vaccines.

Efficient, fast, and predictable manufacturing at all stages of product development can help accelerate the development of new therapies. Today, there are increased demands to reduce the time and costs necessary to produce both small and large volumes of high-quality recombinant protein drugs and vaccines for clinical and commercial use.

Eukaryotic microorganisms provide a potential solution to address these challenges, but there remains a fractionated ecosystem, limited biological and clinical knowledge, and multiple available options with uncertain utility. Our Consortium seeks to define a new partnered model that addresses these challenges in order to realize next-generation agile solutions for biologic manufacturing.

By sharing alternative host cell research, AltHost members are supporting efforts to explore innovative ways to produce biologics and vaccines for clinical usage in diseases from diabetes to cancer. Biogen, Amgen, Pfizer Inc., Genentech – a member of the Roche Group, Sanofi, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are the first contributors into AltHost and its collective research, which comes at a critical time. Global health concerns like Alzheimer’s Disease and HIV are fueling a growing worldwide demand for biologic drugs. AltHost will aim to flexibly address industry needs, including improved product quality, and increased volumetric productivity. MIT has also committed to making this research available to meet growing global health needs.

Biogen, the first company to engage with MIT in AltHost, hopes that by using an open-source model to create a common knowledge base they can more quickly and affordably serve patients. “Our initial evaluation has shown that leveraging an alternative host for biologics manufacturing has the potential to enable rapid development of high-quality mammalian-like proteins that could accelerate drugs into the clinic,” said Christina Alves, Principal Scientist at Biogen.

As AltHost continues to make discoveries, it aims to convert its learnings into protocols and kits, including strains, vectors, and software tools, openly available to AltHost members for further individualized enhancement and application towards molecular pipelines worldwide.