ABSTRACT
Animal cell culture has become an important aspect of biotechnology. This chapter outlines the possible areas in basic research and development which, when solved, will permit the development of more efficient, cost-effective processes for cell culture and downstream processing. It addresses the two major biological problems encountered in large-scale cell culture: the control of cell growth and the optimization of specific cellular productivity. While many aspects of cell physiology are well defined, two areas which might be relevant to future applied research but which are highly speculative include the elimination of recently identified inhibitors of secretion and the understanding of intracellular protein trafficking. The identification of the signals and transport proteins might enable us to manipulate them to significantly increase cellular secretion. The range of environmental factors affecting cellular secretion to be evaluated when new biological manufacturing processes are being developed must be expanded.
