Cell and gene therapies hold great promise, but the industry needs a truly scalable, flexible and cost-efficient way to manufacture the volume of cells and viral vectors required to meet demand.
To address that need, Corning developed the Ascent Fixed Bed Reactor (FBR) system to provide the yield efficiency of adherent cell culture and the scalability of suspension processes.
The first Ascent product, the Ascent FBR PD system features an automated controller, media conditioning vessel, disposable sensors, and a novel bioreactor designed to maximize cell growth throughout the bioreactor bed, with consistent media exposure. The woven mesh substrate enables uniform fluid flow and cell distribution, which helps to enhance cell health and productivity and achieve high yields of cells and cell-based products.
Depending on the desired application, observed transfection efficiencies are routinely greater than 90%, and viable cell harvest can achieve greater than 90% yield and viability.
The Ascent FBR platform is designed to provide linear scalability with multiple size options from 1 to 5 m2 in the Process Development system, 20 to 100 m2 in the Pilot system and 200 to 1,000 m2 in the Production system.