Sartorius Stedim Biotech’s (SSB) ambr® 15 automated micro bioreactor system is combined with a Nova Biomedical (Nova) BioProfile® FLEX2 automated cell culture analyser, and was shown for the first time at the Cell Line Development & Engineering Conference in San Diego, California.
This integrated system was the first from SSB and Nova’s successful collaboration. It enables rapid, at-line sample collection and analysis of massive quantities of key cell culture data.
SSB and Nova collaborated to seamlessly integrate the software interface that controls the ambr® 15 workstation for automated parallel processing of 24 or 48 single-use bioreactors (10–15 ml working volume) with the cell culture analysis capabilities of the innovative BioProfile FLEX2. The combined system provides a unique tool to simultaneously run, sample, and analyse a massive number of cell culture conditions during cell line and media development by Design of Experiments (DoE).
Combining the ambr® 15 and the BioProfile® FLEX2 enabled fully integrated automatic sample transfer, analysis, and automated feedback control in each single-use ambr® 15 bioreactor. This allows collection of enormous quantities of cell culture data, including total and viable cell density, viability, cell diameter, pH, PCO2, PO2, glucose, lactate, glutamine, glutamate, ammonium, Na , K , Ca and osmolality, which can be sampled and measured with a complete cycle time of between six and seven minutes.
The ambr® 15 software simultaneously acquires the BioProfile® FLEX2 data set and processes it by performing complex in-run calculations of how much feed volume to automatically add during a run. This saves time by significantly increasing the amount of consistent clone selection, media development and culture parameter data that a scientist can generate per run.
ambr® product manager at Sartorius Stedim Biotech Dr. Barney Zoro said: “We have combined two highly innovative technologies. Our successful partnership with Nova has delivered complete at-line analytics capabilities for our ambr® 15 platform.
“Utilising these integrated systems will support scientists to more easily run full quality by design (QbD) studies, without causing a sampling bottleneck or needing additional staff resources. The new system will optimise their process productivity, as well as the quality of their biologics.”
Biotechnology sales product line manager at Nova Matthew McRae says: “There is a significant demand for fully automated cell culture analysis of small-volume culture systems like the Sartorius ambr® micro bioreactor system.
“We’re excited to have worked with SSB on this integration program because our BioProfile FLEX2 with maintenance-free sensors provides rapid analysis of key cell culture tests using just 265 microliters of sample. As a result, this analyser is a highly complementary addition to the ambr®15, while maintaining the flexibility and modularity of the first-generation BioProfile FLEX analyser.”