Shire’s process development department recently overhauled its inventory control system. The result was a projected five-year net benefit of over US$1.5 million and an immediate increase in its scientists’ productivity and satisfaction. Hiding in Plain Sight We asked one of our scientists why he kept 12 cases of gloves on his laboratory bench. “I use a lot of them,†he told us. “I don’t want to run out.†When asked how long his supply would last, he replied, “I don’t know.…
Looking at the landscape today, it’s hard to believe that in 2004 the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, CA, was home to only two biotechnology companies. Over the past decade, industry-leading organizations across academia, clinical care, and research have settled in the area, creating a thriving ecosystem of more than 100 life science companies. Prestigious academic and research institutions such as The Gladstone Institutes and University of California San Francisco as well as life science accelerators such as QB3…
with Dr. Gernot John of PreSens Precision Sensing GmbH Shake flasks are simple, low-cost devices widely used in screening and media optimization. The most widely measured parameter to determine biomass is optical density (OD). It is typically measured offline because no suitable equipment for broad range biomass measurements in shake flasks has been available. But a new, compact, SFR vario device from PreSens Precision Sensing can be placed under shake flasks to measure four parameters online: pH, O2 saturation, oxygen…
with Francesc Gòdia (chemical engineering professor at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) Chemically defined media free of animal-derived components are required for bioprocess operations based on mammalian cells. Supplementation of commercial media with specific compounds was studied using a design of experiments (DoE) approach to screen the most efficient compounds for two cell lines and then determine their optimal conditions. DoE allowed simultaneous testing of several compounds to determine potential interactions among them in addition to their individual effects. Gòdia’s…