Researchers at the Technical University of Denmark engineered Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell lines that synthesize two essential amino acids (threonine and histidine) and lines that produce little lactate and minimal ammonia, reducing key waste metabolites in biomanufacturing. The lactate result was also validated in HEK293 cells and published in Nature Metabolism. By reducing reliance on tailored feed schedules and lowering byproduct formation, the cell lines could simplify upstream processes, improve consistency and reduce costs for monoclonal antibody and biologic production. The team plans to extend the approach to additional amino acids and evaluate antibody production and quality across engineered lines.