Sartorius Stedim Biotech (SSB) has formed an agreement with Nova Biomedical (www.novabiomedical.com), a U.S. manufacturer of cell culture analyzers, to integrate their BioProfile FLEX2 into the ambr multi-parallel bioreactor systems for automated, at-line cell culture analytics. SSB and Nova are collaborating to combine two innovative technologies. Both the BioProfile FLEX2 analyzer and the parallel bioprocessing functionality of the ambr create a tool able to simultaneously run, sample and analyze a large number of cell culture conditions during high-throughput cell line, media and process development by Design of Experiments (DoE). This will allow biopharmaceutical companies to develop well-characterized cell culture processes in less time while preventing the process development bottleneck being shifted to the analytical laboratory.

The partnership will deliver fully integrated analytics for the ambr 15 cell culture system in the third quarter this year and later in 2017 for the ambr 250 high throughput. The ambr platform mimics the characteristics of classical bioreactors at the microscale by allowing automated parallel processing of single-use bioreactors. Integrating ambr and the BioProfile FLEX2 will benefit users by allowing independent sampling, sample transfer, analysis and automated feedback control in each mini bioreactor.

“The combination of ambr and Nova’s BioProfile FLEX2 solution saves time by significantly increasing the amount of data that can be generated per run,” said Stefan Schlack, senior vice president marketing and product management, SSB. “Together with our Umetrics and BioPAT MFCS software suites, this will offer a complete solution to generate and analyze the vast amounts of data required for a QbD approach to upstream bioprocess development.”

Nicholas Theodore, senior vice president of global sales, Nova Biomedical, said, “We’re very excited about this collaboration. The combination of Nova’s expertise in automated cell culture analysis and Sartorius’ talent in delivering micro-scale smart reactors will yield tremendous benefits for the biotech industry. The integration of BioProfile FLEX2 with the ambr cell culture systems will result in accelerated commercialization of products and the ability to develop more products at lower cost, while ensuring the best quality of biotherapeutics for patients worldwide.”