Biolech. Adv. Vol. 9, pp. 51--68,1991 0734-9750/91 $0.00 + .50 Printed in Great Britain. All Rights Reserved. ~) 1991 Pergamon Press plc PRODUCTION SCALE INSECT CELL CULTURE S. N. AGATHOS Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and Waksman Institute, Rutgers - - The State University of New Jersey. Piscataway, N/08855-0909, U.S.A. ABSTRACT Insect cells in culture are currently commanding great interest as superior hosts for the efficient production of biologicals with applications in health care and in agriculture. Insect cell culture is ripe for scale-up technologies, in order to meet future projected production requirements of (a) insect viruses used as bioinsecticides and (b) recombinant proteins of therapeutic potential for humans and animals The single most prominent system used in research-based and in commercial insect cell culture today involves lepidopteran cells transfected with baculovirus expression vectors for abundant formation of recombinant biologicals. However, dipteran insect cell lines also are beginning to emerge as useful tools in bioteehnology. Current practices in bioprocess development using insect cell culture, advances in media formulation and in insect cell bioreactor design, and emerging trends are presented and critically evaluated. KEYWORDS insect cell culture, lepidopteran cell lines, dipteran cell lines, Spodoptera frugiperda, Autographa cali fornica NPV, baeulovirus vectors, Drosophila melanogaster, Aedes a/bop/am, bioreactor design, scale up, serum, serum-free media 51