Case Study: an accelerated 8-day monoclonal antibody production process based on high seeding densities
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Updated: May 12, 2026

Use of High-Throughput Automated Microbioreactor System for Production of Model IgG1 in CHO Cells
Published on: September 28, 2018
Ishai Padawer1, Wai Lam W Ling, Yunling Bai
1Bioprocess Development, Merck Research Laboratories, Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ 07065, USA.
Abstract:
This study describes the development work to shorten the monoclonal antibody (mAb) production time in CHO cell cultures from 14 days to 8 days without impacting mAb titer or product quality. The proposed process increases cell inoculation densities up to 25× higher than a typical seeding density in the final production bioreactor, with the implementation of an ATF™ perfusion system in the N - 1 stage. Similar antibody titer and N-glycosylation profiles were reached in 8 days using the 25× seed condition, as in 14 days using the 1× seed condition. Acidic variants in the 25× seed condition were 12-20% lower than the 1× seed condition. These results indicate that an accelerated 8-day antibody production process utilizing a 25× seeding strategy has the potential of achieving similar product quality and titer as the 1× seeding condition in a 14-day production process.
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