At Hera, we focus on engineering suspension CHO cells optimized for scale-up in GMP bioproduction. Our proprietary gene editing platform—featuring Cas-CLOVER for targeted knockouts and integrations, CleanCut GS knockout CHO host cells, and Harbor-IN transposase for stable integration—enables the generation of high-performance cell lines for therapeutic protein production and other advanced applications.
What sets Hera apart is our full commercial licensing and freedom to operate (FTO) for every component of this advanced gene editing platform, enabling us to deliver top-producing cell clones to clients as a fee-for-service without any downstream royalties or payment obligations.
Harnessing Harbor-IN Transposase for Cell Line Development
1. High Efficiency: improves productivity and reduces time & cost
2. Large Integration Capacity: supports large/multi-gene payloads
3. Stability: long-term expression over extended culture
Achieve high titers and long-term stability using Harbor-IN. Trusted by pharmaceutical companies and CDMO’s around the world, Harbor-IN enables high titers and industry leading cell specific productivity.
Harbor-IN + CleanCut GS for Service-Based Cell Line Development
Hera integrates the Harbor-IN transposase system with CleanCut GS CHO cells to provide a turnkey platform for commercial cell line development services. Harbor-IN enables stable integration of large expression cassettes at transcriptionally active, open chromatin regions, while CleanCut GS cells allow for stringent selection and high productivity.
This combination provides an ideal solution for generating high-yield, stable production clones, along with compatibility with GMP manufacturing requirements. With Hera’s integrated platform and expertise, clients can rapidly advance from transgene design to cell banks with no downstream licensing fees.
Our Stable Cell Line Development Process
Hera’s streamlined cell line development process begins with the design and construction of optimized transposon vectors encoding the client’s genes of interest. We then perform transfection, GS selection, and single-cell cloning.
Selected clones are screened for expression and growth, with accurate titer measurements used to rank productivity. Up to 10 high-performing monoclonal clones are expanded, QC tested and banked in accordance with regulatory guidance.
Cas CLOVER for Host Cell Modifications and Targeted Integration
Hera employs Cas-CLOVER, a dimeric gene editing system and CRISPR/Cas9 alternative with superior freedom to operate (FTO), to engineer cell lines with high-value modifications. This platform was used to create our proprietary CleanCut GS CHO cell line, and we now apply it to help clients enhance their host cells.
Cas-CLOVER delivers improved knock-in efficiency compared to CRISPR/Cas9, enabling precise insertion of genes of interest—including at safe harbor loci—while maintaining desirable cellular characteristics. When combined with Harbor-IN transposase, it further enables tunable copy number for optimized protein expression.