Transfection Kit

The Clinical Biotechnology Centre at the NHS Blood and Transplant is an MHRA licensed facility for the manufacture of investigational medical products such as advanced therapies and biotechnology products which includes plasmid DNA, viral vectors and therapeutic proteins. The organisation intends to initiate a procurement process for the supply of advanced and cost-effective transfection reagents demonstrating optimal performance characteristics for the delivery of various nucleic acid formats into mammalian cells. In the initial phase, transfection reagents are sought for the production of lentiviral and adeno-associated viral vectors utilizing packaging cell lines, and for a range of related research and clinical applications. It is anticipated that these reagents also will be utilised for gene therapies and other therapeutic manufacturing or research purposes using DNA and RNA or other novel modalities requiring transfection. The transfection reagent of choice must demonstrate the efficient and low-cytotoxic delivery of the following non-exhaustive list modalities such as plasmid DNA, synthetic DNA, enzymatically produced DNA, RNA and any other novel modalities. The reagent must be of GMP quality and be compatible with HEK293 suspension and adherent cell culture systems for clinical grade manufacturing of gene therapy vectors. Suitability to transfect cells in process intensified cell culture system is a critical requirement along with cell culture systems that utilise high cell density cultures. Transfection reagent should be suitable to be used in scalable bioreactor systems.