TAP Biosystems, (now part of the Sartorius Stedim Biotech Group), is delighted to announce its ambr15 micro bioreactor system is being used at the leading US-based Contract Manufacturing Organisation (CMO), Gallus BioPharmaceuticals, LLC (“Gallus”) to optimise process development and clone selection of novel antibody therapeutics and biosimilars.

Gallus’ scientists are using the ambr15 micro bioreactor in their new, state-of-the-art Process Development facility in St. Louis, Missouri. The system is being used for clone selection programmes to determine which CHO cell lines are stable and produce the highest titre mAbs. They are also using the ambr system to optimise media selection and feed strategies for these mAbs, which are being developed as antibody therapeutics and biosimilars for some of the world’s top pharma and biotech firms.

Matt Caple, Scientific Director of Cell Culture Development at Gallus said: “Our clients want high yielding, pure biotherapeutic antibodies that they can take into clinical trials as quickly as possible. However, they often come to us without any process development history for their mAb clones and we have to ensure we build them a robust process.  We used to do this with multiple shake flask and benchtop scale bioreactor runs - in one media development project we performed 1000 shake flasks runs - however, we knew we couldn’t continue to work at this labour-intensive scale.  So we assessed a number of bioreactor models and concluded that the ambr15 system was the right option for us.”

Caple added: “We have now been working with our ambr15 for six months and, from our comparison studies, have seen the titre results of our mAbs correlate well with those we obtained in 50L bioreactors.  We are currently using ambr15 routinely for our bioprocess characterisation work and are looking at using it for perfusion culture modelling. For us, ambr is ‘game changing’ technology, so much so that we are now running it around the clock and are considering buying a second system.”

Dr Barney Zoro, ambr15 Product Manager at TAP Biosystems stated: "We’re delighted that Gallus has integrated the ambr15 system so seamlessly into their new Process Development facility. Their confidence in the system shows scientists that ambr15 is the proven choice for helping to deliver robust, high-performance cell culture processes, especially where biotech and pharma clients are imposing stringent timelines and product quality targets.”

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