Author Archives: John Carvell

An Introduction to the FUTURA pico for Mini-bioreactors

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Small bioreactors are gaining share in process development laboratories. It is vital that these bioreactors are realistic scale down models of larger systems and it is equally important that online sensors for measuring live biomass can also be used in these vessels. ABER, known and trusted for its sensors that measure live cell concentrations using capacitance technology and adopted in the world’s leading bio pharmaceutical companies from R&D through to cGMP processes brings you the new FUTURA PICO. Our Conventional…

November 20, 2017

Monitoring Live Biomass in Disposable Bioreactors

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Often simply referred to as capacitance, radio-frequency (RF) impedance has been used for over two decades to measure online biomass. It is generally regarded as the most robust and reliable method to monitor live-cell concentrations in mammalian cell culture (1). Many biopharmaceutical companies have now made the transition from conventional glass or stainless steel multiuse (MU) vessels to single-use (SU) bioreactors. Disposables are rapidly becoming the preferred platform for new processes requiring current good manufacturing practice (CGMP) compliance. At the…

March 14, 2016

A Biomass Monitor for Disposable Bioreactors

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    Of the available on-line biomass assay types, radio-frequency impedance spectroscopy (RFI, often referred to as capacitance) is generally regarded as the most robust and reliable method for monitoring viable biomass during fermentation and cell culture. The first article to show that capacitance could be used to estimate microbial biomass dates back over 20 years (1). Today the technology is routinely used for monitoring and controlling mammalian cell culture processes and high-density yeast and bacterial fermentations in research, process…

January 1, 2011