Manufacture > R & D > Overview It is well known that there are many difficulties in commercializing plant-derived substances by plant cell culture, since plant cells are sensitive to environmental stress, which cause deviation yields of specific substances. In addition, the unique biosynthetic mechanisms of many kinds of secondary metabolites were still unknown, so it was not easy to find applicable results from elsewhere. The research team of SamYang Genex succeeded in developing a cell line which produces high yields of Genexol® in a stable and consistent manner by studying stress factors. The team accomplished productivity improvement of up to 4-6 times by process development and computer simulation. Large-scale cultivation of plant cells was known to be difficult due to contamination problems, since plant cells had to undergo a number of fermentation steps and be cultivated for a long period of time. SamYang Genex solved the contamination problem by optimizing the culture environment, seed transfer and bioreactor system. Notably, the research team achieved high levels of purity of more than 99.5% and high yields of Genexol® through optimizing the extraction and purification process. In present, SamYang Genex is developing genetically modified cell line to improve the yield of Genexol®. We have intensively investigated the biosynthetic pathway of Genexol® at molecular level, and obtained various candidate genes for metabolic engineering of Genexol®. The key gene of its biosynthesis is now being studied and introduced into our cell line. Nowadays, GMO(genetically modified organism) become an issue because of its potent hazard to both human and environment. However, our manufacturing system is free from those problems of GMO, because the plant cell culture in fermentor is closed system, which means GMO could not be exposed to both human and environment. In addition, thanks to our strict extraction and purification process, there is no problem caused by human uptake. Thus Genexol® production from biotechnically improved cell line will be a good model for plant biotechnology. It is expected that SamYang Genex research makes it possible for the anticancer substance Genexol® to be supplied at a reasonable price in a stable manner without environmental problems, which could relieve pain and cure patients suffering from many different kinds of cancers.