Author Archives: Bertille Lagrange

Diatomaceous Earth Filtration: Innovative Single-Use Concepts for Clarification of High-Density Mammalian Cell Cultures

In the past decade, biopharmaceutical manufacturers have demonstrated major improvements in monoclonal antibody (MAb) production, exhibiting product titers frequently in the range of 5–10 g/L using standard fed-batch mammalian cell cultures (1, 2). Increased product yields allow for smaller-scale production vessels. With 2,000-L single-use bioreactors already commercially available, single-use manufacturing of biomolecules becomes more and more an option. Other recent developments in the biopharmaceutical industry — e.g., drugs for smaller indications and more potent drugs allowing for lower dosages —…

High–Cell-Density Clarification By Single-Use Diatomaceous Earth Filtration

Single-use concepts are widespread in all unit operations of the biopharmaceutical industry. Although single-use technology is rapidly advancing and considered to be highly advantageous in many regards (1,2,3), in some cases it cannot (yet) compete with classical manufacturing systems. Processes with a demanding character (e.g., high cell densities, high titers, high turbidities, increased particle/contaminant loads) especially can bring disposables to their limit of technical feasibility, especially in product harvesting (4,5,6). Here we focus on that step, which is defined as…