Development of a holistic system for the production and optimization of plant cell cultures

In the production of plant-derived ingredients for the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and chemical industries, plant cell cultures represent a lucrative alternative to conventionally grown plants. The production of plant cell cultures begins stepwise from plant tissues, such as roots, leaves, or fruits, into a so-called callus, which consists of undifferentiated, totipotent cells. These cells are then transferred into a culture medium, where they grow in suspension and are used to produce the desired product—either biomass or active compounds—in shake flasks or bioreactors.

Often, the productivity of these suspension cultures can be further increased by optimizing the medium composition or physical culture conditions. However, the conventional approach to production optimization is very inefficient, as synergistic effects of medium components and environmental factors (such as temperature and light) are typically ignored, and mostly only individual cultivation parameters are examined.

The goal of LEDitGrow is to improve the development of bioprocess-compatible plant cell cultures in terms of efficiency and yield. To achieve this, modular technology platforms for plant cell cultures are to be developed and validated, taking into account the individual requirements for cultivating callus and suspension cultures under LED light.

The cultivation screening platform developed in the project will use DoE-based experimental designs to specifically optimize plant cell cultures by capturing the synergistic effects of different medium compositions and physical cultivation parameters on biomass and the production of secondary plant metabolites.

The insights gained and modules developed during the project are intended to be used after the project’s completion in the ROI phase to expand the application to additional plant cell cultures and to increase the production of secondary plant metabolites.