Single-Use Fermentor Process Optimization And Scale-Up Of Microbial Cultures

Recent innovations in Single-Use technologies (SUT) have allowed traditional microbial fermentation processes to quickly capture the established benefits that have been proven over the past decade with animal cell culture processes when using disposable processing equipment. The Thermo Scientific™ HyPerforma™ Single-Use Fermentor (S.U.F.) is designed to deliver equivalent performance to stainless steel SIP/CIP reactors for research and pilot scale microbial bioproduction at 30 L and 300 L liquid working volume. To demonstrate feasibility, several studies were performed in 2014 for the purpose of determining if key process demand aspects of modern recombinant microbial strains like E. coli and P. pastoris could be met in the S.U.F. To this end, prior work did confirm the feasibility of meeting two critical benchmarks - high oxygen uptake demands (kLa of >600 per hour) and being able to monitor and control foam generation inside the disposable bag. Still there have been further questions from academia and industry as to if these new process systems have the ability to support broader and perhaps more aggressive applications.