Preparing CHO Cells For Higher Productivity By Optimizing A Perfused Seed Train

By Michael Cunningham, Jana Mahadevan, Mona Bausch

The upstream seed train expansion process sets the stage for biotherapeutic production and offers opportunities to improve manufacturing efficiency, increase productivity and reduce costs. Existing upstream equipment and/or facility infrastructure can, however, present an impediment to intensification efforts and consequently limit gains in efficiency. Productivity limitations with fed-batch production bioreactors can occur where maximum achievable cell densities are limited. One strategy for increasing output from an existing fed-batch production bioreactor is to use perfusion technology in the N-1 bioreactor to increase the biomass generated in the seed train. This additional biomass enables inoculation of the fed-batch bioreactor at much higher cell densities than those commonly used in conventional fed-batch processes.

This application note describes how N-1 perfusion using Cellvento® 4CHO-X Expansion Medium supports inoculation of a fed-batch, production bioreactor at a much higher cell density resulting in increased product titers.