New Application of TAP’s ambr Microscale Bioreactor as Perfusion Mimic Offers Rapid Method Development of Large Scale Perfusion Culture Processes

TAP Biosystems, a leading supplier of innovative cell culture and consumables for life science, today announced a new application of its ambr™ micro bioreactor system as a perfusion mimic, enabling scientists to rapidly and easily develop large scale perfusion culture processes of unstable, low producing or minimally expressing proteins or antibodies.

The ambr system has been utilized as a semi-continuous chemostat model for perfusion culture in 10-15mL micro bioreactors by utilizing the ambr workstation’s integrated cell counter to monitor cell density and calculate both cell growth rates and dilution volumes required to maintain stable cell density. The ambr’s automated liquid handling performs these dilutions at appropriate time points, thus automatically refining chemostasis throughout the culture process. The cell specific performance can then be extrapolated to full scale perfusion cultures.

This method replaces the use of shake flasks and reduces reliance on bench top bioreactors, saving many months of scale-up process development work. The method and results of the study are available in a technical application note.

Dr Barney Zoro, ambr Product Manager at TAP Biosystems stated: "Pharma industry trends to produce affordable biotherapeutics are driving bioprocess scientists to push their cell cultures for greater and greater protein yields. This has meant perfusion culture, which is the best process to produce unstable or minimally expressing proteins, has become an attractive option. However, practical limits in small-scale models have constrained the development and widespread adoption of large scale perfusion culture.”

Zoro continued: “The application of ambr as a semi-continuous chemostat model will save scientists valuable time with media and process development, enabling them to rapidly scale up an optimum perfusion culture process for increased protein yields.”