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We offer an extensive portfolio of nutritionally diverse animal origin (AO) and animal origin-free (AOF) peptones to supplement a variety of cell culture media.
Starter Pak products provide conveniently packaged 100 g samples of the peptones most commonly used in mammalian cell culture and microbial fermentation bioproduction processes as a perfect starting point to your peptones screening.
Includes yeast and soy peptones with ultra-filtered options that work to reduce endotoxin levels, while yeast products add a mixture of peptides, amino acids, carbohydrates (simple and complex), nucleosides and vitamins.
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Includes peptones includes animal origin and animal origin-free peptones with many essential nutrients needed for the production of human and animal vaccines.
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Provides a variety of yeast and soy products, ideal for processes when an animal origin–free medium is preferred.
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Including easy-to- test-pack of animal origin free peptones, the Peptone Preview Pak features our wheat, cotton, soy, and yeast peptones which provide unique nutritional profiles compared to other cell culture supplements.
For further assistance in your peptone screening process download out the peptones technical reference guide and refer to the Protocols section for supplement titration and blending protocols to help quickly identify the right peptone supplementation for your process.
Download our reference guide ›
To see a complete list of peptones, visit our Gibco Peptones page ›
Case Study: Using peptones to increase titer in scale-up optimizationReview the significant impact of not only adding peptones as a supplement to your cell culture, but also the importance of concentration and timing as a feed strategy for unlocking optimal titer yields. This case study shows that by considering all these factors, we were able to increase titer by 100%. |
Fact: Our peptones provide a high level of consistency through strict manufacturing processes, raw material specifications, and tight quality control. And filing for peptone-containing therapeutics is no different than that for chemically defined (CD) media with regulatory agencies requiring deep data-driven application detail (which we are happy to provide).
Understanding and controlling variability is essential to having a robust manufacturing process for our customers. In this example, we dispel the common myth that peptones are the only cause of variability in a media formulation.
Figure 1. Panel A depicts the manganese levels in 23 different lots of one our most popular peptones that are used in our customers base media formulations. While there is some variation because it is a natural substance, it is within a narrow range due to our very strict process controls. Panel B illustrates a test for variation in manganese levels of a vitamin being added to the same base media and clearly depicts a much wider range of variability.
It is important to understand that most media are formulated with a variety of raw materials and trace metal contamination can be introduced via any one of them. All raw materials have variability and “chemically defined” does not mean chemically pure.
If you are going to add one key supplement to your media formulation to achieve performance, why not leverage the most nutrient rich, process-controlled supplements you can possibly get?
Fact: Did you know that peptones can be used to optimize protein quality?
While increasing and maintaining protein titer continues to be a key bioprocessing goal, ensuring acceptable protein quality has become an equally, if not greater, critical process specification. This is especially relevant to the ever-increasing number of biosimilar therapeutics being developed where it is absolutely essential that characteristics such as glycosylation and charge variant profiles match those of originator molecules.
Figure 2. This figure illustrates the overall glycan composition where the goal was to shift the profile. The dark blue bar reflects the chemically defined (CD) control medium. The light blue bar shows the peptone supplementing the control media and the gray and yellow show the CD media supplement.
Whether adding the peptone or either CD supplement, the control media yielded similar shifts in the profile.
Fact: Established in 1895, the Difco product brand represents more than a century of knowledge in innovating, designing and enhancing culture media and supplements.
By integrating with Thermo Fisher Scientific, we combine the trusted Difco and Gibco premier brands to provide comprehensive supplements and media solutions in one portfolio–delivering even greater value to our customers. Our long and proven history of developing peptones specifically for the bioproduction industry means we have spent many years determining the key nutrient drivers associated with cellular metabolism and fermentation. Let us show you the depth of our analytical capabilities and support you in identifying the key performance drivers in your process.
Figure 3. A history of pioneering the future.
Helping ensure consistency in processes with peptones
To meet vendor requirements:
To meet process requirements:
Fact: We support some of the leading pharmaceutical companies and provide products used in the manufacture of more than 150 biopharmaceutical drugs—including 15 of today’s blockbusters—in the human and animal health markets. Our peptones are also part of the development of the next generation of biopharmaceutical innovations with a robust pipeline.
Need an edge? Our experience in premium supplementation is decades long and now more than ever, as part of the Gibco media portfolio, we can help accelerate your product development timeline.
Our peptones are proven supplements for enhancing bioproduction applications and continue to be widely used for the production of today’s blockbuster biotherapeutics.
Figure 4. Our team took a chemically defined (CD) medium and, through a simple optimization, were able to achieve a 1.5-fold increase in antibody yield. Our team then added a peptone to the process and achieved an additional 2-fold increase over the initial optimization. After adding a peptone feed to the optimized CD medium with peptone, the team was able to yield a final 2-fold increase. Through process scaleup, optimization, and the addition of a peptone, an overall 5.5-fold increased yield was achieved relatively quickly for this CHO line.
Fact: Peptones provide a rapid, cost effective solution through accelerated media development and moderate raw material costs. Coupled with the regulatory support for your filing needs and our deep analytical support for data packages, we can help to strike a balance across multiple bioprocessing requirements and industry challenges.
Figure 5. Our team optimized media with the goal of achieving a viable cell density of 10 million cells by day 5. A peptone-containing formulation was identified after the initial studies that met the design criteria. The best performing chemically defined (CD) medium required additional optimization. After an additional nine months of work, the optimized CD medium showed improved performance, but still did not meet the production goal.
Fact: With a wide range of natural nutritive components, peptones offer essential ingredients shown to increase performance in a variety of vaccine applications.
Figure 6 (A). VERO serum replacement supplement—cumulative population doublings.
Figure 6 (B). Average doubling time from eight consecutive passages.
Our team demonstrated that peptone containing serum replacement supplement (SRS) can result in cell performance that is comparable to 10% serum (Figure 6).
Cells cultured in serum replacement supplement (SRS) containing animal origin-free peptones divided faster with lower doubling time and high cumulative population doublings (CPD) in comparison to 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS).
Cells adapted quickly to SRS formulation from serum and no senescence of cells was observed even after 45 consecutive passages.
While there is no “drop in” replacement for serum, peptones represent one of the most nutrient rich alternatives and we can work with you to help determine what will work best in your application. And we have an entire line of animal origin-free peptones at our disposal that will likely significantly reduce your costs.
Why completely reformulate when we can offer balanced nutrition to meet the specific requirements of most cell types. And who knows? Your performance may improve!
Figure 7. Peptones should be incorporated as early as possible in the upstream process and at any step throughout the development cycle.
Peptones have a flexible application and can increase performance when used as a feed. Our products have been used in batch, fed-batch, and perfusion processes across a number of applications to improve protein production and quality.
Figure 8. Peptones have a flexible application and when used as a feed can increase performance.
With the addition of one supplement, peptones bring numerous benefits to your cell culture. Peptones offer versatility through a balanced composition to meet specific requirements of all cell types.
Figure 9. Peptones are versatile and can be used for a broad range of cell types.
Peptone release testing focused for bioproduction needs
Our stringent traditional and specialized testing covers a range of industries. In addition to the traditional testing performed on peptones designed for use in a range of industries, such as the food industry, we also offer specialized testing for the bioproduction market.
Traditional tests | Specialized tests | ||
pH | Loss on drying | Solubility | Solution clarity |
Bioburden | Coliforms | Solution appearance | Endotoxin |
Amino nitrogen | Total nitrogen | Filterability | Mycoplasma |
Ash | Residue on ignition | Osmolality | Cell culture performance |
Sodium chloride | Tests specific to use of peptones in a cell culture process |
Peptone sources and applications
Product | Source | Application | ||
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| Mammalian cell culture | Microbial fermentation | Insect cell culture |
Bovine (AO) | ✓ |
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Bovine (AO) | ✓ |
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Bovine (AO) | ✓ |
| ||
Mixed animal source (AO) | ✓ |
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Bovine, casein (AO) | ✓ |
| ||
Mixed animal source (AO) | ✓ |
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Mixed animal source (AO) | ✓ | ✓ |
| |
Mixed animal source (AO) | ✓ | ✓ |
| |
Mixed animal source (AO) | ✓ |
| ||
Porcine (AO) | ✓ | ✓ |
| |
Mixed animal source (AO) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Bovine, casein (AO) | ✓ |
| ||
Mixed animal source (AO) | ✓ |
| ||
Mixed animal source (AO) | ✓ |
| ||
Mixed animal source (AO) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Barley (AOF) | ✓ |
| ||
Soy (AOF) | ✓ | ✓ |
| |
Soy (AOF) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Yeast (AOF) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Yeast (AOF) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Yeast (AOF) | ✓ | ✓ |
| |
Yeast (AOF) | ✓ | ✓ |
| |
Yeast (AOF) | ✓ | ✓ |
| |
Cotton (AOF) | ✓ | ✓ |
| |
Cotton (AOF) | ✓ | ✓ |
| |
Soy (AOF) | ✓ | ✓ |
| |
Wheat (AOF) | ✓ | ✓ |
| |
Yeast (AOF) | ✓ |
|
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Soy (AOF) | ✓ |
|
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Yeast, soy (AOF) | ✓ | ✓ |
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Yeast, soy, mixed animal source (AO/AOF) | ✓ | ✓ |
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Yeast, soy, malt (AOF) | ✓ | ✓ |
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*Starter Paks are non-GMP and for evaluation use only. |
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Peptones in mammalian, microbial fermentation, and insect cell culture
Peptones are widely used to support human and animal health, vaccines, and diagnostics. Peptones provide tailored solutions for specific applications, including monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and recombinant proteins. Specifically, in the biopharmaceutical industry, the requirement for high-performance processes has prompted a greater focus on cell culture media and process optimization. As a result, improvements in cell culture media, supplements, and feeds have enabled significant advancements including:
|
|
Rich in amino acids, peptides, vitamins, carbohydrates, nucleosides, minerals, and other components, peptones are well suited for use as supplements and feeds. They provide critical nutritional and environmental support for mammalian cell culture, microbial fermentation in drug production, and recombinant protein production from bacteria and yeast hosts. The advantages of using peptone-containing media are that they are relatively inexpensive, they support a wide variety of growth from a large group of microorganisms, they promote the growth of the more fastidious organisms, they stimulate toxin production, and they routinely produce higher yields.
With a wide range of components and nutritional buffers, peptones can be incorporated throughout the development process, although we suggest incorporating peptones into the process as early as possible. Peptones offer balanced composition to meet specific requirements of all cell types while increasing specific productivity and promoting increased cell densities.
Enhance performance
Our trusted peptones help customers achieve high performance and process consistency. Peptones increase specific productivity, promote increased cell densities and improve cell performance with higher cell titers and yield.
Specializing in the needs of the biopharmaceutical industry, we deliver reliable, consistent performance.
Figure 10. Peptones are nutrient rich. Increased performance over chemically defined formulations.
Our peptones are manufactured specifically for the biopharma industry and provide high level of consistency through strict manufacturing controls and raw material specifications. Although not completely defined, peptones are well characterized and long-established cell culture supplements and feeds which can enhance cell growth and/or protein titer while helping achieve or maintain desired protein quality.
Manufacturing high-quality cell culture media and supplements
As leaders in the cell culture industry, we are focused on designing, developing, and manufacturing high-quality products. Our highly trained and skilled associates have many years of experience in scaling and manufacturing cell culture supplements and media. Our experience and expertise improve upstream processes and reduce project timelines allowing us to exceed our customers’ goals and requirements.
Our commitment to quality is achieved through customer-focused continuous improvement and effective quality systems. Our validated methodologies are based upon regulations according to FDA in the United States and EMA in Europe and focus on:
|
|
Our dedicated animal origin-free facility operates under a quality system with considerations of 21 CFR Parts 210 and 211 regulations for the manufacture of finished pharmaceuticals and is ISO 9001 certified.
Peptone manufacture
Most peptones are manufactured similarly, with steps for hydrolysis and downstream processing. Yeast extract manufacture is an exception because it is an autolysate but the basic steps are the same. The figure below outlines the key steps of peptone manufacture: hydrolysis/digestion, centrifugation, filtration, concentration, and drying. Protein and demineralized water are combined to form a thick suspension of protein material in large-capacity digestion vessels, which are stirred continuously throughout the hydrolysis process. The protein suspension is then adjusted to the optimal pH for the specific enzyme chosen for the hydrolysis.
Figure 11. Basics steps of peptone manufacture.
Ultrafiltration
Ultrafiltration (UF) is a membrane filtration process used to separate or concentrate constituents of protein solutions based on molecular weight. We offer several peptone and yeast extract products that are ultra-filtered, using a molecular weight cut off (MWCO) membrane. The result is a retentate containing molecules over the cut off, which may include fats, larger MW polypeptides and proteins, and a permeate that contains salts, sugars, peptides, smaller polypeptides, and other compounds. Additionally, ultrafiltration reduces the presence of endotoxins known to cause illness in humans or negatively impact the production process.
Figure 12. Ultrafiltration steps within the process of peptone manufacture.
Peptones in mammalian, microbial fermentation, and insect cell culture
Peptones are widely used to support human and animal health, vaccines, and diagnostics. Peptones provide tailored solutions for specific applications, including monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and recombinant proteins. Specifically, in the biopharmaceutical industry, the requirement for high-performance processes has prompted a greater focus on cell culture media and process optimization. As a result, improvements in cell culture media, supplements, and feeds have enabled significant advancements including:
|
|
Rich in amino acids, peptides, vitamins, carbohydrates, nucleosides, minerals, and other components, peptones are well suited for use as supplements and feeds. They provide critical nutritional and environmental support for mammalian cell culture, microbial fermentation in drug production, and recombinant protein production from bacteria and yeast hosts. The advantages of using peptone-containing media are that they are relatively inexpensive, they support a wide variety of growth from a large group of microorganisms, they promote the growth of the more fastidious organisms, they stimulate toxin production, and they routinely produce higher yields.
With a wide range of components and nutritional buffers, peptones can be incorporated throughout the development process, although we suggest incorporating peptones into the process as early as possible. Peptones offer balanced composition to meet specific requirements of all cell types while increasing specific productivity and promoting increased cell densities.
Enhance performance
Our trusted peptones help customers achieve high performance and process consistency. Peptones increase specific productivity, promote increased cell densities and improve cell performance with higher cell titers and yield.
Specializing in the needs of the biopharmaceutical industry, we deliver reliable, consistent performance.
Figure 10. Peptones are nutrient rich. Increased performance over chemically defined formulations.
Our peptones are manufactured specifically for the biopharma industry and provide high level of consistency through strict manufacturing controls and raw material specifications. Although not completely defined, peptones are well characterized and long-established cell culture supplements and feeds which can enhance cell growth and/or protein titer while helping achieve or maintain desired protein quality.
Manufacturing high-quality cell culture media and supplements
As leaders in the cell culture industry, we are focused on designing, developing, and manufacturing high-quality products. Our highly trained and skilled associates have many years of experience in scaling and manufacturing cell culture supplements and media. Our experience and expertise improve upstream processes and reduce project timelines allowing us to exceed our customers’ goals and requirements.
Our commitment to quality is achieved through customer-focused continuous improvement and effective quality systems. Our validated methodologies are based upon regulations according to FDA in the United States and EMA in Europe and focus on:
|
|
Our dedicated animal origin-free facility operates under a quality system with considerations of 21 CFR Parts 210 and 211 regulations for the manufacture of finished pharmaceuticals and is ISO 9001 certified.
Peptone manufacture
Most peptones are manufactured similarly, with steps for hydrolysis and downstream processing. Yeast extract manufacture is an exception because it is an autolysate but the basic steps are the same. The figure below outlines the key steps of peptone manufacture: hydrolysis/digestion, centrifugation, filtration, concentration, and drying. Protein and demineralized water are combined to form a thick suspension of protein material in large-capacity digestion vessels, which are stirred continuously throughout the hydrolysis process. The protein suspension is then adjusted to the optimal pH for the specific enzyme chosen for the hydrolysis.
Figure 11. Basics steps of peptone manufacture.
Ultrafiltration
Ultrafiltration (UF) is a membrane filtration process used to separate or concentrate constituents of protein solutions based on molecular weight. We offer several peptone and yeast extract products that are ultra-filtered, using a molecular weight cut off (MWCO) membrane. The result is a retentate containing molecules over the cut off, which may include fats, larger MW polypeptides and proteins, and a permeate that contains salts, sugars, peptides, smaller polypeptides, and other compounds. Additionally, ultrafiltration reduces the presence of endotoxins known to cause illness in humans or negatively impact the production process.
Figure 12. Ultrafiltration steps within the process of peptone manufacture.
Despite the growing interest in animal origin-free peptone material, peptones from animal proteins remain effective and reliable for many cell culture and bioprocessing applications. Animal origin (AO) peptones are used in reducing or eliminating serum needs in certain media formulations, and commonly promote strong cell growth and toxin titers for vaccine production. AO peptones are derived from reliable and highly regulated raw materials and they provide a well-performing, cost-effective media component or supplement, particularly in processes and applications with less rigorous animal origin requirements.
Historically, microbial and mammalian cell lines have been propagated in media containing animal components, including serum. In recent years, media formulators have been moving to eliminate animal-sourced components in media formulations, motivated by BSE/TSE outbreaks in the 1990s. In response, we have developed a broad offering of yeast extracts, soy peptones, and other animal origin-free media and supplements.
Peptones derived from animal origin-free sources provide unique nutritional profiles suitable for both bacterial fermentation and mammalian cell culture applications. Yeast extracts and yeastolates offer a different range of nutritional choices to enhance production. Soy peptone, one of the first successful plant-based peptones to be optimized into cell culture, is processed in several different ways to provide various nutrient mixes to meet different needs. In addition to these more common animal origin-free components, many other plant-based products have been developed, including malt, cotton, and wheat sourced peptones, which offer an additional breadth of supplements with strong and varied performance characteristics.
Gibco CHO Media |
A variety of CHO media designed to match the diverse needs of your cell line. |
Gibco EfficientFeed Total Feeds |
With EfficientFeed A+, B+, and C+ feeding supplements, deliver super-concentrated nutrients in a complete, easy-to-prepare, dry-format feed |
Gibco BioProduction Services |
Customization, cell line development, and media optimization services. |
Access a targeted collection of scientific application notes, case studies, posters, white papers and more for bioprocessing:
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