ProBioGen launches avian designer cell line for recombinant poxvirus vaccine

ProBioGen, a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) headquartered in Berlin, Germany, has launched AGE1.CR.ReX, an avian designer cell line designed for stable, high-titer poxvirus production and rapid generation of recombinant modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) for vaccine and oncolytic virus development.

The cell line is engineered to enable inducible control of transgene expression during virus production, according to the announcement. The company said conventional poxvirus vector development faces selection pressure against difficult or unstable transgenes, which can result in reduced viral titers, inconsistent batch performance, and repeated purification cycles. The platform is designed to address these challenges by stabilizing transgene expression without compromising yields.

Central to the platform is a proprietary selection system that uses tetherin as a marker to eliminate parental viruses, reportedly reducing operator-intensive purification steps. The system is designed to generate pure recombinant MVA in as few as three passages and supports high-throughput screening of vaccine candidates in both adherent and suspension cultures in chemically defined media.

The platform is being applied to an ongoing initiative with Minapharm toward an African Bundibugyo Ebola virus vaccine, according to the announcement. The company said the cell line is also suited for oncolytic virus development, personalized medicines, and pandemic preparedness programs.

Ingo Jordan, vice president of vaccine strategies at ProBioGen, said in a statement the combination of inducible transgene control and the tetherin-based selection system enable faster development timelines and more robust industrial manufacturing workflows for vaccine and viral vector developers.

Volker Sandig, chief scientific officer at ProBioGen, added that without these technologies, accelerated development and reliable manufacture of an MVA-based Ebola vaccine would not be possible.

The launch follows ProBioGen’s January service agreement with Zag Bio to provide cell line development, process development, and GMP manufacturing for ZAG-101, an Fc-fusion protein candidate for the prevention or delay of Type 1 diabetes, targeted to enter clinical development in the second half of 2026.