Sartorius Stedim Biotech (SSB) has launched a new mini bioreactor vessel for its ambr 250 high throughput (ht) system. This new vessel is designed for optimal growth of adherent cells on microcarriers and to enable rapid, scalable cell culture process development of vaccines.   

The single-use mini bioreactor for microcarrier culture has a working volume of 100-250 mL and features a single Elephant Ear impeller. According to the company, this impeller type generates optimum mixing and suspension of microcarriers, allowing adherent cells to grow over the entire microcarrier surface. The new mini vessel is based on cell culture bioreactors in the ambr 250 ht system. Using this bioreactor on the ambr 250 ht system allows for rapid scale-up of optimized adherent cell culture processes to SSB’s BIOSTAT STR range of pilot and manufacturing scale stirred bioreactors. According to the company, this results in shorter process development timelines than would be achieved by scientists using benchtop bioreactors and spinner flasks.  
      
The new single-use mini bioreactor is designed to minimize set-up and turnaround time. With up to 24 bioreactors per ambr 250 ht system, the technology is ideal for Design of Experiments (DoE) studies to optimize process development for vaccine manufacturing using a Quality by Design (QbD) approach.   

“There has been increasing interest in using microcarriers for culturing adherent cell lines in single-use stirred bioreactors as they offer a cost-effective alternative to two-dimensional approaches for vaccine production using T-flasks and roller bottles,” said Dr. Barney Zoro, ambr Product Manager at Sartorius Stedim Biotech. “We are proud to be introducing our new ambr 250 mini bioreactor for culturing adherent cells.”