Background
The benefits of single-use technologies in both upstream and downstream operations are now widely acknowledged by the biopharmaceutical industry, and have resulted in radical changes to the design and operation of many pharmaceutical processes. In mammalian cell culture, multi-use, cleanable glass or stainless steel stirred tank reactors (STRs) have been used successfully for growth of suspended cell lines for both small and large scale systems. However, to achieve the same or better performance from a single-use bioreactor presents a significant challenge to product designers and developers.
The poster describes the studies aimed at characterizing the fluid dynamics of the Allegro STR 1000 bioreactor by measurement and modelling of specific physical parameters known to be critical for mammalian cell culture: more specifically, oxygen transfer rates, mixing times and carbon dioxide stripping rate.