How to Construct a Monoclonal Antibody Factory: A Comparison of Production Costs in Fed Batch and Perfusion Culture with Microcarriers (part 1)

by Peter Bosch, Bjorn Lundgren, and Christian Kaisermayer, PhD
Volume 7, Issue 1 (Spring 2008)

Building a MAb bioprocessing plant is a process which normally takes three years. Before starting the engineering work, a “locked” process is ­necessary. This means that all the steps have to be defined by volume, time, material balances and product yield. These calculations are based on the results obtained during process development. The titer and yield of functional, recoverable product determines the plant size. Optimal volumetric ­productivity [g/(liter reactor volume * day)] is of utmost importance. The main difference between fed batch and perfusion culture is that in the fed batch, a centrifuge is required for cell removal, whereas in perfusion culture, cell removal is performed by dead end filtration. This is possible because the majority of the cells are immobilised on the microcarriers, thus minimizing the burden on the clarification unit…

Citation:
Bosch P, Lundgren B, Kaisermayer C. How to Construct a Monoclonal Antibody Factory: A Comparison of Production Costs in Fed Batch and Perfusion Culture with Microcarriers. BioProcess J, 2008; 7(1): 34-36. http://dx.doi.org/10.12665/J71.Lundgren