CCG-E45 Cell Culture Technology
The CCG-E45 3-D Culture Technology consists of a patented CCG-E45 Culture Chamber and a customized CCG-E45 Incubator. This combination enables an operator without cell culture expertise and outside the typical clean room environment to grow cells for various applications. The CCG-E45 Culture Chamber, while possessing some resemblance to a hollow-fiber bi
oreactor, is unique in the way that it provides oxygen and pH control for the cells. The CCG-E45 Incubator provides a localized clean room environment around the CCG-E45 Culture Chamber that allows precise temperature control for optimal cell growth. The CCG-E45 Culture Chamber can be rotated around its central axis for suspension cultures.
The innovative approach represented by the CCG-E45 Culture Chamber can be summarized as follows:
· Internal chamber with a volume of 17 mL for 3-D culture of adherent cells and suspension cells (e.g. hybridoma).
· Microcarriers can be used as substrata for adherent cells.
· Two separate types of hollow fibers provide the necessary perfusion of nutrients from the media and oxygenated gases (for pO2 and pH regulation of the microenvironment).
· Cells are not encouraged to grow on the hollow fibers, so that long-term high performance can be achieved as membrane pores do not become rapdily covered by cells or debris.
· Cells are maintained and harvested at high viability using standard procedures (e.g. trypsinization).
Due to the novel design of the CCG-E45 Culture Chamber, a wide variety of applications are possible with a totally scalable device. Scaling can be achieved in both directions (both larger and smaller). The design also makes it possible to employ a variety of hollow-fiber or porous tubes as the perfusion and oxygenation.
Finally, the 3-D Culture Chamber is operated by an equally novel bench-top customized incubator, which offers many advantages over conventional hollow-fiber bioreactors.
The CCG-E45 Incubator is simple to operate; it does not have the complexity of other bioreactors. A single technician can operate many CCG-E45 Incubators easily due to the minimal daily maintenance required.
The CCG-E45 Incubator is designed specifically for the CCG-E45 Culture Chamber. It has the functionality to maintain uniform media flow through a closed-loop system, it regulates temperature of the media and chamber, provides gas-flow control of pre-mixed gases, and allows the CCG-E45 Culture Chamber to axially rotate back and forth, providing the mixing preferred by cells growing in suspension. This mixing feature overcomes any possible mass transfer limitation in 3-D culture.