Fitch Monoclonal Antibody Facility: Hollow Fiber Bioreactors

Large-Scale Protein Production using Hollow Fiber Bioreactors

Hollow Fiber Bioreactors (HFB) are used primarily for growing antibody secreting hybridomas and transfectomas at high densities to achieve high-titer antibody containing supernatent.

Mammalian cell cultures, for years, have been grown in 2-dimensional, non-porous, culture plates. These plates limit cell growth by needing to be split or passed and given fresh media every few days. After about 2 days, the cells have nearly consumed all the nutrients and are bathing in their waste. This feast and famine routine inhibits cells full potential as far a growth rates and antibody/protein secretion rates. The Hollow-Fiber Bioreactor technology addresses all these concerns.

Hollow Fiber Bioreactors allow for:

Easy scale-up of cells without having stacks of flasks fill up the incubator
Increase antibody titer up to 100 fold from static culture flask supe.
3-D growth of cells up to tissue-like densities supported by porous fiber matrix.
Reduced cell toxicity from waste and pH changes.
Less overall maintainance of cell culture
Cost savings for production of greater than 50mg of protein.

The Protein Production Facility:

Has completed nearly 70 HFB projects
These projects produced anywhere from 50mg up to 1.5g of antibody
Final costs are typically between $5.00-$12.00/mg.
Uses the FiberCell System bioreactor

For more information regarding this technology, please contact the facility.
For pricing, click here.
To get your project started, you can fill out a Bioreactor Request Form.