CER Groupe is a collective research center supporting human and animal health by providing products, research and services to companies active in the biotech, pharma, food safety and agriculture sectors.
Adrian Boes, Bioproduction technical manager at CER Groupe, answered some questions on their use of the scale-X™ nexo system and how this tiny bioreactor helped them kick-start their early-stage development with confidence.
Thank you for joining us today Adrian. What did you observe when first introducing the scale-X nexo bioreactor into your experimental protocols?
Using the scale-X nexo bioreactor for our experiments made us realize about significant operational advantages. It is easy to set up because of the intuitive design and it does not require autoclaving. This reduced preparation time as well as contamination risks, which allowed us to comfortably perform the experiments without delay.
How did you monitor cell growth and navigated critical process steps?
The innovative design of the bioreactor allows for easy retrieval of the fixed-bed and enables precise cell counting at any phase of the process. Once we had established the metabolite correlation, we could monitor cell growth with high reliability throughout the growth phase and repeatedly choose the best time for transfection. This functionality was essential for achieving the desired product consistency.
Are you satisfied with using the scale-X nexo system in your process development journey ?
Yes, the scale-X nexo accelerated and facilitated our process development journey, with reduced COGs due to its small surface and volume. We observed consistent performance and yields across repeated runs, laying the basis for reliable scale-up. Then the structured fixed-bed design allows for seamless transition between scales, ranging from small-scale experiments to mid- and large-scale production in scale-X carbo or nitro bioreactors.
Why did you choose to collaborate with Univercells Technologies, and how is the partnership aligned with your objectives?
As a research center, we collaborate with Univercells Technologies for their innovative bioreactor solutions, which supports our process development at CER Groupe. Their scale-X systems make it easy us to meet our objectives, because of their reliability and scalability, overall reducing the number of runs, time and costs. This partnership improves our scientific work, and we are looking forward to continuing the collaboration to keep making biologics affordable to all.
The scale-X nexo accelerated and facilitated our process development journey, with reduced COGs due to its small surface and volume.
Adrian Boes, Bioproduction Technical Manager – CER Groupe