Vaccines to Biofuels: An Advanced Benchtop Reactor for All Your Process Culture Needs

“Market-leading product; extremely user friendly; durable and reliable,” our customers have said. They’re talking about New Brunswick Scientific’s BioFlo CelliGen^® 310 benchtop fermentor/bioreactor: a versatile system designed to grow high-density cultures from virtually any cell type: mammalian, insect, and plant, as well as bacteria, yeast, and fungi. Used for both aerobic and anaerobic cultures, this CGMP-compliant system is currently being used in labs around the world for such diverse applications as the production of vaccines, proteins, gene therapeutics, and diagnostics to biofuels manufacturing. With the ability to regulate 32 process parameters each, in one to four vessels simultaneously — totaling over 120 possible parameters — it’s no wonder the BioFlo 310 has been put to use in R&D and production facilities in industries ranging from cosmetics and pharmaceuticals to foods and plastics.

WHAT MAKES THE BIOFLO 310 SO VERSATILE?
Advanced controller provides the ability to easily connect your fermentor to up to 10 auxiliary devices for integrated loop-to-loop cascade control. Adding cell mass sensors, scales, gas analyzers, pumps, multiple thermal mass flow controllers (TMFCs), and various other auxiliary equipment, is plug-and-play simple.

A sophisticated touchscreen interface with a large, bright, color 15-in. monitor makes it simple to set up, calibrate and monitor process values, including those of your external devices. Custom trend graphs simultaneously track up to eight controlled parameters. Customize the intervals between sample measurements, set and save up to ten recipes, program alarms, and easily navigate between control screens.

Viewing Options: Like working with a synoptic view? Prefer a table? Take your pick for viewing and editing process values: They’re both built in.

Precise Controls: A TMFC with four-gas controls provides control of total gas flow rate in fermentation and cell culture applications. If you prefer individual control of each sparge gas and/or gas overlay, multiple TMFCs or manual Rotameters can be added.

Versatile: Three built-in peristaltic pumps, assignable to nine control modes, provide added versatility. Built-in controls and connections are also supplied for optional external pumps for addition, harvest, and foam adjustment.

Unique Heat Exchanger: Heat inductions as well as growth of exothermic cultures are easily managed with the stainless steel heat exchanger that enables you to circulate warm or cool water through the vessel’s base, to rapidly raise or lower culture temperature. Use of a stainless-steel base provides greater thermoconductivity than glass, so even systems with greater surface area can’t match the speed of BioFlo 310’s temperature shifts.

Eight interchangeable, autoclavable vessels are offered to meet a variety of needs. For fermentation, choose 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, or 14.0-L (total volume) vessels with stainless-steel hemispherical base. For cell culture, NBS offers double-walled vessels with magnetic drive in 2.2, 5.0, 7.5 ,and 14.0-L capacities to add to your BioFlo 310, as well as offering a dedicated cell culture bioreactor system, the CelliGen^® 310.

A wide range of specialized impeller options maximizes yields no matter what your cell type or desired end-product. For fermentation, six-bladed Rushton impellers are standard, with marine and pitched-blade options available. For cell culture, choose from five options, including NBS patented low-shear Cell-Lift impeller, a unique packed-bed basket impeller for secreted products, as well as marine or pitched blade impellers, with or without spin filters (Photo 2).

Packed-Bed Option: For high-yield production of secreted products from anchorage-dependent (ADP) or suspension cultures, NBS offers a unique packed-bed basket option using FibraCel® disks to optimize yields (Photo 1). The FibraCel disk is a three-dimensional solid support material, that creates larger surface area for cell growth; it is manufactured with CGMP guidelines and made of polyester and polypropylene. The disks have proven effective for growth of virtually any animal cell and are currently used in the production of the world’s first licensed gene therapy drug. Among FibraCel’s many advantages are that cells are protected from shear damage caused by impellers, gas bubbles, and pumps. FibraCel also allows higher mixing speeds to increase mass transfer of nutrients and oxygen; achieves a high surface-area-to-volume ratio for exceptionally high yields, and automatically separates cells from secreted products, eliminating filtration and membrane fouling.

Two built-in USB ports are provided: one to connect an eight-port serial box to add scales and other auxiliary equipment; and the second port for exporting trend data and/or uploading firmware and software upgrades as they become available. Typically, those upgrades are provided at no charge and can be easily accessed from NBS’s website.

GROW A VARIETY OF CELL TYPES
So what kind of cell densities can you expect to achieve? Tables 1 and 2 show results from bacterial, mammalian, and yeast cell lines as obtained by NBS’s microbiologists and cell culture scientists working in our in-house labs. It should be noted that NBS did not attempt to optimize process parameters, feeding schedules, or yields, so these results or better might be expected using this highly versatile BioFlo 310 fermentor/bioreactor in your laboratory.

WHAT OTHER ADVANTAGES DOES NBS OFFER?
Expert Scientists on Staff: One of the many advantages of purchasing NBS equipment is that NBS has permanently staffed, in-house fermentation and cell culture laboratories and a pilot plant operated by leading experts in the field. Not only do we test all of our new product designs in our R&D and production labs, but we also offer a range of lab services, including process development, optimization, and scale-up assistance as well as media formulation and computer-control strategies for our fermentation and cell culture equipment. Researchers are welcome to work side-by-side with the NBS scientists to learn techniques and process optimization. Contract (toll) production and downstream processing are also available.

Training: NBS offers a variety of training options, including on-site setup and calibration of your new equipment with intensive training for individuals or groups. Let us know your needs, and we’ll tailor a program for you.

BioCommand supervisory software option provides automatic data logging, remote batch control, and three levels of user-programmability. Easy-to-use programming tools help you implement feed strategies, pH control, and other protocols simply and automatically.

Validation: NBS offers a variety of options to meet your regulatory requirements.

A comprehensive warranty is backed by a worldwide network of factory-trained service representatives and replacement parts stocking centers. Contact NBS to get further information about our preventive maintenance programs.

SUMMARY
The BioFlo 310 is a versatile tool capable of achieving high yields in bacterial, mammalian, plant, and insect cells. Built with high quality standards, this product is CGMP-compliant, validatable, available with short lead times, and priced very affordably.

The BioFlo 310 is just one of a series of fully scalable fermentors and bioreactors offered in 1 to 3,000 L capacities. New Brunswick Scientific also offers a wide variety of contract laboratory services and training packages, as well as related equipment ranging from automated cell counting systems to CO₂ incubators, shakers, media preparation equipment, and ultra low temperature freezers.

Rajul Vyas is product manager at New Brunswick Scientific, PO Box 4005, Edison, NJ 08818-4005; 1-800-668-0965; bioinfo@nbsc.com; www.nbsc.com/bie.htm

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