Cell Culture Media

Shear-Proof Design Space: Scaling Stirred-Tank Bioreactors for Cell Culture Processes

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Establishing a cell culture process across different scales and models of bioreactors involves maintaining constant scale-independent parameters such as pH, temperature, and dissolved oxygen (DO). However, nonlinear and scale-dependent criteria (impeller agitation and gas flow rates) are adjusted on the basis of multiple normalized engineering parameters to accommodate the geometrical and design differences among bioreactors (1–3). Normalized engineering approaches for scaling parameterization often are based on the shear generated by impeller speed and gas flow rates. Kinetic energy transmitted into…

February 9, 2023

Shaken or Stirred: Comparing Rocking-Motion and Impeller Technology in Cell Cultivation

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For decades, stirred-tank reactors (STRs) have been the gold standard in cell cultivation, particularly in large-scale processes. However, rocking-motion (RM) technology offers an efficient alternative that can be a better choice for certain applications. In a November 2022 webinar, Tobias Schenk (product manager at Sartorius) discussed the two technologies, highlighting the strengths of each and how they can be used in tandem for optimal results. The Presentation RM bioreactor technology mixes nutrients into cell culture media using a wave motion…

February 9, 2023

Accelerating Early Upstream Screening Activities for Viral Vector Therapies

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Biopharmaceuticals delivered by viral vectors (VVs) face distinctive obstacles during early upstream development. In October 2022, Andres Castillo (a portfolio manager at Sartorius) noted that drug makers set short development timelines to hasten therapies into the clinical evaluation. Doing so limits time for analyzing complex biointeractions, and studies for culture-media and VV screening are time- and resource-intensive. Castillo and Shanya Jiang (also a portfolio manager at Sartorius) explored how integrated technologies facilitate robust cell-line and VV screening. The Presentation Reflecting…

December 6, 2022

Deciphering Nutritional Needs in Bioprocess Optimization: Targeted and Untargeted Metabolomics with Genome-Scale Modeling

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Microbiology has risen as a major part of global industry over the past three decades. Industrial microbiology, biotechnology, biopharma and now biointelligent production systems (1) embrace a wide range of manufacturing platforms and product areas involving microbes, animal cells, and plant cells — as well as whole organisms. The multibillion-dollar applications of biomanufacturing display great variety. They include microbial-based production of such valuable metabolites as amino acids, vitamins, solvents, and organic acids as well as larger products such as enzymes,…

October 20, 2022

Increasing Reproducibility of Cell Culture Bioprocesses

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Reproducible cell growth and reliable development of a desired product are ideal outcomes for a bioprocessing engineer. If reproducibility is poor, the risk of needing to discard a batch and repeat an entire bioprocess is high and results in a great loss of time and resources. Cells, culture media, and a bioprocess control system are required components of an upstream bioprocess. Each of those can be a source of variability that affects cell growth and viability as well as product…

September 28, 2022

Deriving Mesenchymal Stromal Cells from Umbilical Cord Lining and Wharton’s Jelly: A Comparative Study of Extraction Methods and Culture Media

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Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are multipotent, self-renewing progenitor cells that can differentiate into adipocytes, chondrocytes, and osteocytes (1). Cultured MSCs are plastic-adherent and spindle-shaped, and they express cell-surface markers CD44, CD73, CD90, and CD105, but not CD14, CD34, CD45, CD11b, CD79a, CD19, or HLA-DR (2, 3). First isolated from bone marrow (BM), human MSCs have been investigated extensively in clinical studies. MSCs also have been isolated from adipose tissue (4) and peripheral blood (5). Perinatal organs and tissues such as…

September 28, 2022

Using Cutting-Edge Tools to Optimize Cell-Culture Media Development

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Although culture-media optimization accounts for a relatively small part of process development, selections made at that stage strongly influence overall bioprocess productivity. Yaron Silberberg (chief scientist at the Ajinomoto Genexine CELLiST Solution Center) joined BPI in July 2022 to present strategies for enhancing media performance. He focused on how emerging tools for statistical analysis and process control facilitate media development for cultures based on Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell lines. Silberberg’s Presentation Because materials applied during cell-line development are not…

September 28, 2022

Innovations in Cell Culture, Sensor Technology, and Process Control: Preparing for Industry 4.0

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To celebrate the 20th anniversary of BioProcess International, industry suppliers were asked to respond to a questionnaire about the important technologies, trends, and manufacturing innovations that have shaaped their companies and the entire industry over the past two decades. What has been the most important scientific or technological innovation in the past 20 years of bioprocessing? I have been in the industry since the mid-1990s, and clearly the most significant evolution in biomanufacturing has been the widespread implementation of single-use…

August 22, 2022

Enabling High-Performing
Perfusion Cell Culture

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At least one report estimates that by 2025, 35% of biologics will be manufactured using enhanced processes, particularly perfusion-based bioprocessing. Results of two innovations that support this need for enhanced processes are examined below. The Thermo Scientific HyPerforma DynaDrive Single-Use Bioreactor (SUB), the latest advancement in SUB technology, offers better performance than other bioreactors and scalability up to 5,000 L. Gibco High-Intensity Perfusion CHO Medium is formulated to provide exceptional performance and ease of use, with capability of sustaining >1…

August 25, 2021

Compounded Media Powder Streamlines Cell Culture Media Preparation Operations

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Cell culture medium is critical to cell growth, metabolism, and protein expression. It provides for optimum pH, osmolality, and nutrients in an environment that is essential for cell survival, growth, and expression of proteins and/or metabolites and drug-substance modalities of interest (1). A complete medium typically contains basic nutrients such as carbohydrates, amino acids, lipids, salts, vitamins, trace metals, growth factors/hormones (e.g., insulin), antishear factors, and other chemicals that facilitate cell growth and protein expression and may stabilize recombinant protein…

March 9, 2021