S. Knowles (sknowles@atmi.com), J.C. Drugmand, S. Dubois, Y. Dohogne, F. Debras, N. Havelange, J. Castillo
Introduction
Over the past decade, single-use bioreactors have been developed and accepted for cGMP use in the biomanufacturing industry. Among
them is the Integrity® iCELLis® series of bioreactors from ATMI LifeSciences, were designed for adherent cell culture.
Adherent cell processes for production of biomolecules and viruses often involve 2-D vessels (e.g. roller bottles, Cell Stacks/Cell Factories, etc.)
requiring many manual operations and large areas of cleanroom space, or microcarrier cultures which require complex cell transfer steps and a
very high level of expertise. Some cell culture processes allowing continuous production by medium perfusion also use adherent cells retained in
a bioreactor while culture media is continuously perfused.
In order to maximize surface area within a compact space and retain cells for easy medium exchange, the iCELLis bioreactors contain macrocarriers
trapped in a fixed-bed providing a 3-D matrix for the cells to grow. These bioreactors also enable precise temperature, pH and dissolved
oxygen control which cannot be done in 2-D cultures.
The iCELLis technology can be used at small and large scales with straightforward process scale-up, easy single-use operations and minimal
space requirement.
Here we present a summary of adherent cell process developments in iCELLis bioreactors, including:
HEK 293 cell expansion for production of adenovirus
