Quantitative Phase Imaging: From Cell Counting To Continuous Monitoring Of Viral Load In A Bioreactor

Quantitative Phase Imaging is currently used to count and determine viability of a variety of cell types. When a cell culture process involves an infection step (e.g. Baculovirus Expression Vector System, BEVS in insect cells), it is not yet possible to continuously monitor the infection kinetics. To do so, sampling and off-line analysis are required. However, real time results are important because they can impact the way the culture is performed, for instance addition of nutrients, change of cell culture parameters, optimal harvest time, etc.

Our study shows that using a novel technology, Quantitative Phase Imaging (QPI, based on Differential Digital Holographic Microscopy), a detection system can be trained to identify infected cells, and then be used to determine the percentage of infected cells within the culture in real-time.