ExcellGene and Khner achieved milestone in development of novel 250 Liter mammalian cell culture b...( May 12 2009 / b3c newswire / - Excell...)

May 12, 2009 / b3c newswire / - ExcellGene SA, Monthey and Adolf Kühner AG, Birsfelden announce today that they achieved an important milestone in the development of a revolutionary cell culture technology for scale up and manufacturing from suspension cultured mammalian cells.

As part of a long-term partnership the two companies disclose today the successful conclusion of the technically challenging task of growing mammalian cells for the production of recombinant proteins in an orbitally shaken bioreactor.  The mechanism of orbital shaking allows for efficient mixing of suspension cultures, while oxygenating cells through the head space. The cylindrical vessel contains a disposable, sterile bag with appropriate connection tubes for seeding, feeding, gas supply and harvesting of the culture. Compared to classical stirred tank bioreactors, OrbShake-bioreactors are much simpler and less costly to operate.

The principles of orbital shaking technology with cylindrical vessels at smaller scale (50 ml to 10 Liter) has been object of preceding research and development at the two companies, and data obtained have shown that oxygen, the most important nutrient in animal cell culture, can be transferred to cells in such reactors as efficiently, if not more efficiently than any other bioreactor system used for animal cells so far. Cell culture data obtained from pilot experiments executed at ExcellGene have shown that growth and productivity from these reactors, now shown up to a scale of 200 Liters, are equivalent to those of fully instrumented non-disposable, glass or stainless steel stirred bioreactors.
 
“The top-class technical and developmental expertise of Kühner AG in shaking technology is providing the necessary hardware knowledge that will be needed to tackle the challenging task of creating a revolut
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