TAP Biosystems Installs First Fully Integrated Micro Bioreactor System at Top US Pharma Company

TAP Biosystems today announced the first installation of its micro bioreactor system (ambr™) with integrated cell viability analyser in one of the world’s top 10 pharmaceutical companies. This walk-away system will be used to assist in predicting how antibody-expressing cell lines will perform in large scale bioreactors.

The ambr system was purchased by the major US pharmaceutical company then TAP Biosystems’ specialists integrated the customer’s Cedex HiRes cell analyser into the system’s workflow. The ability to manage their ambr system with cell counting from one central point is enabling the pharma company’s researchers to reproducibly control and evaluate the behaviour of their antibody-expressing cell lines at micro scale (10–15 ml working volume). Unattended cell counts can be performed outside of normal working hours, supporting experiments overnight or at weekends, thus saving time and making significant productivity improvements.

Using the ambr software, scientists at the pharmaceutical firm can control culture conditions; initiate on-line measurement of cell number and viability, and collect cell analysis data. They can also set up the ambr to make automatic feeds based on the integrated cell count data, providing a truly walk-away automated bioreactor system.

Dr Barney Zoro, ambr Product Manager at TAP Biosystems explained: "There is data which suggests incorporating a cell analyser into an automated cell processing workflow delivers more precise results, as the count variation that can occur between different sample handling practices, is reduced. Therefore, we are delighted to have successfully integrated a second type of cell analyser into the ambr system at such a major pharma because it offers researchers the opportunity to confidently run and control larger numbers of experiments, as and when they need to, without being constrained by the working day.”

Zoro concluded: “For bioprocess scientists needing to accurately determine the optimum bioprocessing conditions to accelerate their cell line selection and process development, an ambr system with integral cell analysis capabilities is the perfect solution.”