Bioprocess Lunch and Learn in San Mateo, CA

Please join us for Eppendorf’s annual bioprocess luncheon seminar series where new and repeat attendees will benefit as we present new topics and expand on topics introduced last year.  Out topics include:

Stem Cells:  Expansion of Human Stem Cells in Single-use Vessels
UPDATE - Stem cell applications involving both hMSC and hiPSC
Experimentation involving human stem cells (HSCs) is one of the fastest growing fields in research and development due, in large part, to its potential for revolutionizing human disease treatment.  There are multiple HSC platforms being investigated, including human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) and human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs).  Both have distinct advantages and disadvantages, but what they share is a bottleneck at the stage of scale-up, or the ability to produce enough cells for downstream R&D purposes.  In this study, we discuss the successful growth of HSCs, both hMSC and hiPSC, in BioBLU single-use stirred-tank bioreactors from the small (0.3L) to bench (3 L) scale.  In particular, we highlight the production of one billion hMSCs in a single bioreactors, and the culture of hiPSC at the small scale in parallel bioreactors.

Scalability for Fermentation and Cell Culture Applications -  0.3L and beyond!
UPDATE - Scalability studies using P/V E.coli fermentation scale-up from 1L to 100L
This presentation will focus on real world application data driven bioreactor scale-up/scale-down methodologies for cell culture and fermentation.  We will review several popular methods (tip speed, mixing time, kLa, and power per volume) currently used in industry today for bioprocess scaling.  We will also examine the importance of supply side inputs such as, the vessel H:D ratio, the impeller:D ratio and more using both the BioBLU family of single-use bioreactors and traditional glass and stainless steel systems as real world examples.   Participants will walk away with an understanding of the fundamentals of bioprocess scaling and be able to apply these key principles to their own application regardless of the equipment/system manufacturer.

On-line Optical Cell Biomass Monitoring under Wide Ranging Process Conditions
Optical density (OD) has long been used as a tool for assessing biomass in liquid microbial cultures due to its simplicity and the common availability of laboratory spectrophotometers.  As a relative measure of the growth of a unicellular organism on a given spectrophotometer, OD can be highly reproducible.  Less well appreciated is that the measurement is not universal between instruments and typically no longer varies linearly with biomass once stationary growth has been reached. 

Various optical technologies for biomass monitoring in fermentors have been developed to monitor biomass continuously (“on-line”).  Monitoring cell biomass from inoculation (e.g. <0.1 g/L dry cell weight) to harvest (e.g. >100 g/L) frequently requires at least 3 orders of magnitude of cell biomass sensitivity.  The range of linear biomass sensitivity of current on-line optical biomass monitoring methods will be compared.  Sources of potential interference such as bubbles and expressed products will also be discussed, along with recently-developed methods for mitigating their effects.  

Lunch will be served after the presentations.