Micro and mini bioreactors for microbial strain and process development: experiences with the ambr 15 fermentation and ambr 250 systems

In recent years, the use of the Sartorius ambr 15 microbioreactor system has revolutionized small-scale mammalian cell culture. Leveraging the miniaturization experience gained from the ambr 15 mammalian bioreactor system, Merck and Sartorius co-developed the ambr 250 system and also Sartorius has separately recently released an ambr 15f microbioreactor system for microbial fermentation. Here we will provide an overview of the capabilities of these new mini and micro-scale stirred tank bioreactor systems. We have observed that ambr 250 mimics large scale microbial cultures well for a range of parameters. The ambr 15f system has been shown to be consistent and efficient in controlling microbial cultures across a variety culture conditions (e.g. Feed, temperature, duration, pH). Additionally, we show here the reproducibility of ambr 15f across multiple replicates of the same culture conditions as well as the relative scalability of the system up to a 30-L stirred-tank bioreactor. Overall, the ambr 15f microbioreactor system provides an effective automated scale-down tool for fed-batch microbial fermentation, and the ambr 250 is confirmed to be an efficient and accurate model for large scale cultures.