In modern bioprocessing, cell culture media is one of the most significant cost drivers, yet the nutrients and other critical factors in the media are often not fully utilized. With the renewed emphasis on reducing the cost of bioprocessing, there is much interest in reducing the overall use of cell culture media. In this work, we introduce a mesoscale microfluidic separation device based on the ion concentration polarization (ICP) process to regenerate the spent media for reuse by removing critical waste products from the cell culture that are known to inhibit the growth of the cells. We demonstrated that up to 75% of spent culture media can be regenerated and reused without affecting the cell viability. A detailed analysis of the materials consumed during antibody production indicated that one could improve the water process mass intensity by up to 33% by regenerating and recycling the media. Given that ICP separation systems have already been scaled up to support large‐volume processing, it would be feasible to deploy this technology for manufacturing scale bioreactors (e.g., 50 L perfusion culture of CHO cells), reducing the overall operation cost and water use.

中文翻译：

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废培养基的再生，通过离子浓度极化实现可持续和连续的 mAb 生产


在现代生物工艺中，细胞培养基是最重要的成本驱动因素之一，但培养基中的营养物质和其他关键因素往往没有得到充分利用。随着人们重新强调降低生物工艺成本，人们越来越关注减少细胞培养基的整体使用。在这项工作中，我们引入了一种基于离子浓度极化 （ICP） 工艺的中尺度微流体分离装置，通过从细胞培养物中去除已知会抑制细胞生长的关键废物来再生用过的培养基以供再利用。我们证明，高达 75% 的用过的培养基可以再生和再利用，而不会影响细胞活力。对抗体生产过程中消耗的材料的详细分析表明，通过再生和回收培养基，可以将水过程的质量强度提高多达 33%。鉴于 ICP 分离系统已经扩大规模以支持大体积处理，因此将该技术用于生产规模的生物反应器（例如，50 L CHO 细胞的灌流培养）是可行的，从而降低总体运营成本和用水量。