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Interaction of cell culture with downstream purification: a case study
1Department of Biotechnological Production, Thomae/Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Biberach at the Riss, Germany.
Cytotechnology
|January 1, 1994
Summary
Evaluating cell separation methods for biotech production, this study found tangential flow microfiltration superior to centrifugation for preparing cell-free fluids for purification. Microfiltration directly yielded acceptable process fluid quality, unlike centrifugation which required an additional filtration step.
Area of Science:
- Biotechnology and bioprocessing
- Cell culture and separation technologies
Background:
- Effective separation of mammalian cells from culture supernatant is crucial for downstream purification of biopharmaceutical products.
- The transition from product generation to isolation necessitates robust solid/liquid phase separation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate economic and fast cell separation methods for preparing cell-free fluids.
- To assess the suitability of disc stack centrifuges and tangential flow microfiltration for large-scale bioprocessing.
Main Methods:
- Comparison of disc stack centrifuges and tangential flow microfiltration units for large-scale cell separation.
- Evaluation of process fluid quality for subsequent ultrafiltration and chromatography.
Main Results:
- Both centrifugation and microfiltration demonstrated high throughput and scalability.
- Centrifugation required an additional filtration step to achieve adequate purity for downstream processes.
- Tangential flow microfiltration directly produced process fluid of acceptable quality.
Conclusions:
- Tangential flow microfiltration is a more direct and efficient method for preparing cell-free fluids in biopharmaceutical production compared to centrifugation.
- Optimization of process parameters is essential for reproducible cell separation, but conditions may be cell-specific.