Bioreactor Design and Bioprocess Controls for Industrialized Cell Processing

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A short and sweet note to point you to a great article on bioreactor technologies related to cell therapy bioprocessing by CTG consultant and Director of Stem Cell-based Drug Discovery, John E. Hambor, who you can now follow on Twitter @StemCellonDrugs.


"Bioreactor Design and Bioprocess Controls for Industrialized Cell Processing" was published in the June issue of BioProcess International.  


The BPI team has made a real and meaningful commitment to representing cell therapy bioprocessing and we applaud them for their contribution to this emerging discipline.




If this is a topic of interest to you, I recommend you also check out a conference being held this Fall by BPI's sister company, IBC LifeSciences, entitled "Cell Therapy BioProcessing" to be held September 11-12 in Arlington, Virginia.

Cell Therapies: Commercializing a New Class of Biopharmaceuticals

Over the past six months I have been honored and pleased to have seen and been part of an increasing focus and attention being paid to the unique manufacturing and bioproduction issues related to cell therapy.

Certainly it is the Cell Therapy Group's view, that this is both timely and much-needed as more cell therapies reach later-stage. Issues related to larger scale production and lowering the costs associated with it will be critical to successful commercialization of these products. It is encouraging to see both content-providers and and companies involved in potentially bringing solutions to these issues now bringing their focused energies to this sector.

This focus has come from a number of different sources including conferences focused solely on the topic, companies engaging stakeholders in identifying potential bottlenecks they might be positioned to solve, more conference sessions dedicated to these issues, and now a commitment by one of the leading publications in bioprocessing to engage both the cell therapy industry and the traditional bioprocessing community in stepping up the level of two-way education, dialog, and problem-solving that will be critical to commercializing these products.

In March/April 2011, watch for a special issue of BioProcess International entitled "Cell Therapies: Commercializing a New Class of Biopharmaceuticals".

BioProcess International is a publishing leader of cutting edge technologies, improved processes and breakthrough sciences. With this cell therapy focused issue, in partnership with ISCT and others, BPI is launching what we hope will be a regular supplement and increased focus on the unique bioproduction issues related to cell-based therapies.

BioProcess International aims to accomplish three main objectives with this supplement:

• Educate the bioprocess and cell therapy market (suppliers and end-users) on the similarities and differences between the two processes;
• Educate and encourage the investor community to keep increasing their interest and investment;
• Expedite the commercialization process.

Distribution will include:

• BPI's 30,010 qualified readers;
• Delegates attending ISCT's 2011 Annual Meeting (included in all delegate bags)
• Delegates attending ESACT 2011 (Chair drop at the Cell Therapy Plenary Session)
• INTERPHEX 2011 Cell Therapy Roundtable (VIP Invitations, 200 attendees, produced by BPI)
• BIO 2011 International Convention (BioProcess Theatre - Cell Therapy track)

If you are interested in advertising, click here for more info.

While the content for this issue is now being finalized, it you are interested in contributing something to BPI, we are looking for more cell therapy related content. As the cell therapy representative on BPI's advisory board I would be happy to champion it through submission.

Cheers.

--Lee

Cell types available for regenerative medicine applications

A useful teaching image and an article that's recommended reading:

Cell types available for regenerative medicine applications.

Click on image to view larger version.

Excerpted from: Stem cell bioprocessing: fundamentals and principles

Madsrk R Placzek, I-Ming Chung, Hugo M Macedo, Siti Ismail, Teresa Mortera Blanco, Mayasari Lim, Jae Min Cha, Iliana Fauzi, Yunyi Kang, David C.L Yeo, Chi Yip Joan Ma, Julia M Polak, Nicki Panoskaltsis† and Athanasios Mantalaris*

† Biological Systems Engineering Laboratory, Centre for Process Systems Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London
South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, UK

*Author for correspondence (a.mantalaris@imperial.ac.uk)

doi: 10.1098/​rsif.2008.0442 J. R. Soc. Interface 6 March 2009 vol. 6 no. 32 209-232

Abstract

In recent years, the potential of stem cell research for tissue engineering-based therapies and regenerative medicine clinical applications has become well established. In 2006, Chung pioneered the first entire organ transplant using adult stem cells and a scaffold for clinical evaluation. With this a new milestone was achieved, with seven patients with myelomeningocele receiving stem cell-derived bladder transplants resulting in substantial improvements in their quality of life. While a bladder is a relatively simple organ, the breakthrough highlights the incredible benefits that can be gained from the cross-disciplinary nature of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM) that encompasses stem cell research and stem cell bioprocessing.

Unquestionably, the development of bioprocess technologies for the transfer of the current laboratory-based practice of stem cell tissue culture to the clinic as therapeutics necessitates the application of engineering principles and practices to achieve control, reproducibility, automation, validation and safety of the process and the product. The successful translation will require contributions from fundamental research (from developmental biology to the ‘omics’ technologies and advances in immunology) and from existing industrial practice (biologics), especially on automation, quality assurance and regulation.

The timely development, integration and execution of various components will be critical—failures of the past (such as in the commercialization of skin equivalents) on marketing, pricing, production and advertising should not be repeated. This review aims to address the principles required for successful stem cell bioprocessing so that they can be applied deftly to clinical applications.