BIOREACTOR USING ACOUSTIC STANDING WAVES

摘要

A perfusion bioreactor includes at least one ultrasonic transducer that can acoustically generate a multi-dimensional standing wave. The standing wave can be used to retain cells in the bioreactor, and can also be utilized to dewater or further harvest product from the waste materials produced in a bioreactor.

主权项

1. A method for obtaining expanded cells, comprising:
culturing cells in a system comprising:
a bioreactor including a reaction vessel having an internal volume, an agitator, a feed inlet, and an outlet; anda filtering device, comprising:
an inlet fluidly connected to the bioreactor outlet;a flow chamber;an ultrasonic transducer and a reflector located opposite the ultrasonic transducer, the ultrasonic transducer being driven to produce a multi-dimensional acoustic standing wave in the flow chamber; anda recycle outlet downstream of the flow chamber connected to a recycle inlet of the reaction vessel; wherein the cells are cultured in a host fluid in the internal volume of the bioreactor to expand the cells; sending a portion of the host fluid containing the cells from the bioreactor to the flow chamber; trapping cells from the host fluid in the multi-dimensional acoustic standing wave; wherein cells that are trapped in the multi-dimensional acoustic standing wave form cell clusters that grow to a critical size and subsequently fall out of the multi-dimensional acoustic standing wave.