Biopharmaceutical industries every year face a higher demand to speed up the cell line and process development further and obtain robust scalable process conditions. The development of cell- and product-specific processes is a big challenge for process engineers and this challenge requires high-throughput (HTP) tools to screen and optimize the process conditions in a fast way to meet the project timelines and reduce the cost of production. To achieve the process development in HTP microbioreactors successfully, key characteristics of the large scale stirred-tank bioreactors such as agitation, temperature, DO and pH control should be mimicked to ensure a successful scale-down process.
The project aims to develop a modular microbioreactor system especially for Biotech Industry by tackling mechatronic, electronic and bioprocess engineering challenges. The CTQ finalization and MVP validation studies will result in a finely tuned Alpha prototype design.
Low cost, highly modular automated micro bioreactor for cultivation of a wide range of cells.
Reduce CAPEX and OPEX as well as reduced biopharmaceutical development timelines.
By implementing a low-cost, highly modular automation solution with high-throughput micro and mini (photo)bioreactors, an organization could reduce R&D project time by up to 133× and financial demand by up to 13×, enabling rapid, cost-effective biotechnology research and scalable cultivation of a wide range of cells.
Major sub-systems are completed by designing electronic boards, mechanical components, custom embedded software and high-level user interface software. These sub-systems are individually verified. Although still significant amount of work to be done, the initial outcomes are supporting the feasibility of financially more affordable, modular, fully automated micro-bioreactors.
The system integration and bio-validation could not be completed.
Hizal, A., Fully Automated Micro-BioReactor, NIIMBL 2019 National Meeting, Washington, DC, June 28, 2019.
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ProMechSys-RLP, LLC
EMD Millipore Corporation
Genentech, Inc.
Johns Hopkins University
