Scale-Up of recombinant virus and protein production in Stirred-Tank reactors

Stirred-tank fermentors were originally designed to perform microbial cultures (1 ). When the need arose for adequate, posttranslationally modified proteins, molecular biologists and bioprocess engineers turned to mammalian and insect cell culture using these fermentors for large-scale productions (i.e., New Brunswick Scientific’s CelliGen, New Brunswick, NJ; Alfa-Laval’s Chemap, Mannedorf, Switzerland). Stirred-tank reactors (STR) are well known and characterized (as well as airlift reactors mentioned in Chapter 13 ) and provide a simple approach to large-scale suspension cultures when monolayer and spinner flask cultures cannot provide ample material. Depending on the quantity required, bioprocesses can vary in complexity from short-term (5-7 d) batch cultures to longer-term fed-batch (7-10 d) or perfusion processes (7 to 2 30 d).