Can raw cell culture be placed through cross flow ultrafiltration? What’s the best way to minimise blockages with culture supernatant?

Answer

This doesn’t often happen as blockages are pretty likely with raw cell culture straight from the bioreactor, particularly with the higher cell densities. You could try it with a TFF devices as these are the best for minimising risk from blockages, but even still it’s a long shot. If you need to use an ultrafiltration style set up it may be a better bet to use a 0.2um TFF device for clarification before going on to the concentration step with a MWCO ultrafilter. Alternatively you could use more common clarification steps such as by using diatomaceous earth based filtration devices such as Sartoclear Dynamics Lab filter range, standard GF or PP depth filter capsules or a simple centrifugation step with low volume samples.