Danish researchers engineered CHO cell lines that produce two essential amino acids (threonine and histidine) and demonstrate reduced lactate and ammonia waste, promising simpler feeding strategies and lower byproduct burdens for biopharma manufacturing. The work—published with lactate findings in Nature Metabolism—aims to streamline upstream processes and improve product quality consistency. Separately, a study urged bioreactor makers to adopt additive manufacturing for bespoke, low‑volume bioreactors, enabling design freedom, exotic materials, and rapid iteration for cell and gene therapy manufacturing. The report noted higher per‑part costs but argued flexibility offsets expense for specialized, small‑batch production. Together these advances point to a near‑term shift in upstream process engineering: cellular chassis optimized to reduce feed complexity and modular, on‑demand hardware enabling localized, adaptable manufacturing. Both developments could shorten process development timelines and improve supply resilience for complex biologics. Sources: DTU research and a University of Lyon‑led study summarized in the originals.