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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.â€

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.â€