S9: Microbioreactor systems for high-throughput cell culture and fermentation process development

Abstract

Enhancing the throughput and efficiency of cell culture and fermentation process development and optimization is becoming increasingly important. Traditional small scale systems such as spinner and shaker flasks have the advantage to screen large number of experimental conditions; however, they lack the ability to control environmental parameters such as temperature, pH and dissolved oxygen, making shaker and spinner flasks less desirable for process development and optimization.  At the laboratory scale, a typical stirred tank bioreactor system is able to provide environmental controls and online monitoring capability of process parameters; however, the low throughput of such systems does not allow for a cost-effective exploration of a greater experimental design space. This study describes the application of miniaturized bioreactor systems (Micro24 and SimCell^TM) that combine the advantages of both traditional small and large scale bioreactors to increase throughput while maintaining data quantity and quality.