S26: Evaluation of TAP AMBR250 microbioreactor system for E. coli fermentation process development

The majority of E. coli fermentation process development at Genentech is performed at the 10 L scale. The 10 L scale can be costly as a result of labor-intensive operations, limiting the total number of runs available for process development and thus the number of genetic and process variants explored. The TAP AMBR250 microbioreactor system offers an automated solution available as a platform of 12 or 24 parallel 250 mL vessels. The system’s automation has the potential to reduce labor costs in a system that has many of the capabilities of the 10 L scale. We evaluated the AMBR250 vessel both as a screening tool and a process development platform. Our AMBR250 fermentation results demonstrate similar high producing variants as the 10 L scale. Additionally, the fermentation performance was similar to the 10 L scale. Thus, the TAP AMBR250 system could offer a cost-effective solution to supplement the 10 L scale while increasing E. coli fermentation process development capacity.