Michael Laird

Senior Scientist/Associate Director, Process Development

POSTDOC MENTOR

"We are responsible for developing clinical and commercial manufacturing processes for therapeutic proteins."

• 14
  years at Genentech
• 9
  publications (2010-12)

Our laboratories are responsible for developing clinical and commercial manufacturing processes for therapeutic proteins. Major expression platforms include E. coli and Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells.

Our laboratories are housed within Late Stage Cell Culture as part of the Process Research & Development organization. We are responsible for developing clinical and commercial manufacturing processes for therapeutic proteins. Major expression platforms include E. coli and Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells. Some of the research activities that take place in our laboratories include but are not limited to:

• E. coli and CHO process development activities including scale-up
• Media development for CHO cell cultures including studies focused on fractionating complex undefined nutrients, identifying their active components and formulating chemically defined replacements
• Proteomic and genomic analyses to enhance our understanding of how the culture environment influences the protein production process
• Investigating the relationships between productivity & product quality attributes for both E. coli and CHO processes
• Studying & optimizing cellular metabolism for both E. coli and CHO processes
• Studying glycosylation in CHO cells
• Studying & optimizing protein folding and assembly in both E. coli and CHO production systems
• Developing high-throughput production systems for both E. coli & CHO cells
• Developing novel automated strategies for nutrient feeding for E. coli cultures at small- & large-scale
• Using computational fluid dynamics to understand how equipment differences influence mixing and mass transfer and using this information to optimize mixing conditions and control strategies

• My Focus

• Publications

  • Eliminating tyrosine sequence variants in CHO cell lines producing recombinant monoclonal antibodies

    Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 2012, ISSN: 0006-3592

    Feeney, Lauren; Carvalhal, Veronica; Yu, X Christopher; Chan, Betty; Michels, David A; Wang, Yajun Jennifer; Shen, Amy; Ressl, Jan; Dusel, Brendon; Laird, Michael W

     View on PubMed

  • Thioredoxin 1 is responsible for antibody disulfide reduction in CHO cell culture

    Journal of Biotechnology, Jan 2012, v157(1), p261–267, ISSN: 1873-4863

    Koterba, Kristen L; Borgschulte, Trissa; Laird, Michael W

     View on PubMed

  • Characterization of a nutrient feed precipitate from an E. coli fermentation process.

    Biotechnology Progress, 2010, ISSN: 1520-6033

    Speciner, L.; Mallon, E.; Leung, S.; Laird, M.; Esue, O.

  • Use of disposable reactors to generate inoculum cultures for E. coli production fermentations.

    Biotechnology Progress, 2010, ISSN: 1520-6033

    Mahajan, E.; Matthews, T.; Hamilton, R.; Laird, M.

  • Mechanism of Antibody Reduction in Cell Culture Production Processes.

    Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 2010, ISSN: 1097-0290

    Kao, Y.; Hewitt, D.; Trexler-Schmidt, M.; Laird, M.

  • Characterization of a Monoclonal Antibody Cell Culture Production Process Using a Quality by Design Approach.

    Molecular Biotechnology, 2010, ISSN: 1559-0305

    Horvath, B.; Mun, M.; Laird, M.

  • Mechanisms of Unintended Amino Acid Sequence Changes in Recombinant Monoclonal Antibodies Expressed in Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) Cells.

    Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 2010, ISSN: 1097-0290

    Guo, D.; Gao, A.; Michels, D.; Feeney, L.; Eng, M.; Chan, B.; Laird, M.; Zhang, B.; Yu, X.C.; Joly, J.; Snedecor, B.; Shen, A.

  • High-yield expression of human vascular endothelial growth factor VEGF₁₆₅ in Escherichia coli and purification for therapeutic applications.

    Protein Expression & Purification, 2010, ISSN: 1096-0279

    Pizarro, S.; Gunson, J.; Field, M.; Dinges, R.; Khoo, S.; Dalal, M.; Lee, M.; Kaleas, K.; Moiseff, K.; Garnick, S.; Reilly, D.; Laird, M.; Schmelzer, C.

  • Identification and prevention of antibody disulfide bond reduction during cell culture manufacturing.

    Biotechnology & Bioengineering, 2010, ISSN: 1097-0290

    Trexler-Schmidt, M.; Sargis, S.; Chiu, J.; Sze-Khoo, S.; Mun, M.; Kao, Y.; Laird, M.

• Education
  • Genentech, Inc., Postdoctoral Fellow – 1999
  • Arizona State University, Microbiology, Ph.D. – 1996
  • Iowa State University , Biology, B.S. – 1991