TAP announces sale of first advanced micro bioreactor system

The Automation Partnership (TAP), a world leader in the design and development of innovative automation for life science applications, today announced it has sold its first advanced micro bioreactor system (ambr™) system to a global antibody therapeutics company, where ambr is being used to help predict how antibody expressing cell lines will behave in large scale bioreactors.

“We are delighted that our first ambr system was purchased to enable selection of better clones to take forward into platform processes. ambr has been in an intensive development programme for the past 18 months, with comprehensive proof-of-principle testing, and ambr is now generating interest amongst progressive bioprocess scientists.”

The purchase of ambr follows extensive evaluation at the global antibody therapeutics company, who has been involved in testing the ambr concept since 2009. The system has enabled process development scientists there to simultaneously evaluate the effects of 24 different combinations of culture conditions and clones utilising a fraction of the labour and time required to perform similar experiments in lab scale bioreactors. After extensive trials, they have shown ambr provides similar data to a five litre bioreactor and is more reliable than using shake flasks to predict how cells will perform in bioreactors.

The company initially chose ambr because, unlike other bioreactor mimics, it imitates the stirring action of classical bioreactors by having an internal impeller in each disposable bioreactor. ambr also generates enough material to perform the tests needed to analyse product quantity and quality and is one of the only microscale systems designed specifically for culturing mammalian cells.

TAP is working with companies throughout the US and Europe to demonstrate how the system can reduce the time and cost of evaluating clones in comparison to using lab scale bioreactors, and improve their bioprocess workflow and productivity.

Dr Richard Wales TAP's Technology Director for ambr: "We are delighted that our first ambr system was purchased to enable selection of better clones to take forward into platform processes. ambr has been in an intensive development programme for the past 18 months, with comprehensive proof-of-principle testing, and ambr is now generating interest amongst progressive bioprocess scientists.

We look forward to presenting our unique technology to other biopharm companies and CMOs, as ambr will provide a clear competitive advantage to groups with significant mammalian cell line development programmes."