It is widely agreed that the most important quality factor of a bioreactor is its capacity to keep its inside sterile throughout the whole process and despite the number of operational human interactions that will take part during such period, including sampling and harvesting steps. Therefore, it is widely assumed that a bioreactor will do its part in meeting this need by assuring that the technical factors that can affect sterility, such as the lip seals, the mechanical seals, the ports accessories, among many others, are well designed and working correctly.
It is also a must, in the bioreactors- and in general in all technological- industries, that its products work according to the robustness and automation standards that the commercial and technical documents promise.
Presuming this by the purchasing scientist is a natural thing, but the assumption of this by the manufacturer can become a bad practice.
For that reason, we have units of our lab&pilot bioreactors working non-stop, at internal and external locations, to make sure that the basics are covered, independently of the lengthy or different process conditions they are exposed to.
The Autonomous University of Barcelona (Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona: UAB), is one of our well renowned technical prescribers having one of our F0-BABY bioreactor for its cell culturing activities with CHO and HEK293 cells. Laura Cervera García and Pol Peréz were super nice in creating these graphs in parallel to their intense R&D projects, for a graphic proof of the efficiency, precision and robustness of our F0-BABY bioreactor.
RESULTS
THE VERIFICATION OF OUTSTANDING CHO AND HEK293 CELLS GROWTH STANDARDS
Figures 1 and 2 show the changes in both cell density and cell viability through several cells count at different stages of the process (across 7 days after inoculation in the case of CHO cells and 12 days after inoculation in the case of HEK203 cells).
Both the growth rates and the doubling times are compared to those obtained in a shake flask for the same cells. The results showed that CHO cells even underwent a better performance in the bioreactor, despite the fact that all the work had been very thoroughly developed, improved and reproduced in the shake flask.
These results show that our F0-BABY is indeed a perfect cradle for the cultivation and expansion of mammalian cells.
THE VALIDATION OF EFFICIENT AND PRECISE CONTROL LOOPS FOR THE CONTROL OF DIFFERENT PROCESS PARAMETERS
Other experiments focused on testing the efficiency and precision of different control loops by the F0-BABY and ROSITA software (e.g. temperature and pH control at desired set points).
Results showed the efficient communication between the ROSITA software platform and the actuators involved in the control of the different process parameters.
For instance, an efficient response is shown both in the temperature increasing and decreasing tests, reflected by a figure of 0.37 ºC/min in the increasing phase (from a 27ºC to 36ºC) and a figure of 0.47 ºC/min in the decreasing phase (from 36ºC to 27ºC).
