A vessel for culturing cells is provided that includes a vessel body having a top portion, a bottom portion comprising a bottom interior surface, and a cylindrical sidewall. The vessel additionally has an impeller assembly inside the vessel body having a top portion rotatably coupled to the top portion of the vessel body, the impeller assembly having a plurality of planar blades, a central axis, a flexible shaft extending down from the top portion of the impeller assembly, a magnet receptacle molded within the plurality of planar blades, a magnet within the magnet receptacle, and an impeller o-ring coupled to a bottom surface of the planar blades. The vessel also includes a plurality of positioning nubs coupled to the bottom interior surface of the vessel body, spaced from an inside edge of the impeller o-ring.

An inflatable bioreactor (110, 210) may include one or more sheets joined to form a bag (111, 211) including a top sheet (118, 218) and a bottom sheet (119, 219) formed from the one or more sheets and being inflatable to provide an internal volume (117, 217) suitable for retaining a volume of culture liquid (10) during flow of the culture liquid resulting from a rocking motion (R) of the bag, and one or more perturbing protrusions (116, 116, 116, 216) extending upwardly from the bottom sheet toward, but not as far as, the top sheet and extending transversely to, or obliquely to, a direction of wave motion (W) of the culture liquid. The resulting construction may provide improved flow for low initial volumes of the culture liquid in the bag.

Cell culture devices comprise a frame comprising an open well disposed therein and a fluid inlet area in communication with the open well. The open well comprises a top opening, a bottom plate comprising a microcavity substrate, the bottom plate defining a major surface, and one or more sidewalls extending from the bottom plate to the top opening. The microcavity substrate comprises a plurality of microcavities, and each microcavity is configured such that cells cultured in the well form a spheroid. The cell culture device may be a reservoir open well microcavity plate used for spheroid cell culture.

A method for enhancing mixing and aeration of a liquid reaction medium in a toroidal bioreactor vessel includes dispensing a liquid reaction medium into an interior of a toroidal bioreactor vessel, the interior being bounded by an inner surface, a textured surface being arranged on at least a portion of the inner surface, the textured surface having a plurality of upstanding protuberances. The toroidal bioreactor vessel is rotated in an orbital motion such that there is a resonant frequency traveling wave of the fluid orbiting in one direction in the interior of the toroidal bioreactor vessel when a particular orbital speed is imparted to the toroidal bioreactor vessel.

The present invention is directed generally to dry cell culture media or feeds in pellet formats which can be reconstituted into liquid media for culturing cells in vitro. Each pellet composition may comprise the same or a different composition; for example, different vitamins, amino acids, buffers, trace salts, pH, iron chelators, etc. The invention also relates to methods of making dry cell culture media by altering ratios of different pellet compositions, or, methods of making modular dry cell culture media, or customizing media formulations for growing a cell type using pellets. The media pellets may be easier to handle either before reconstitution, during shipping and handling; and/or during reconstitution. Media pellets may be used in any container like bags including sterile, single use bags for preparing media formulations. The invention also relates to kits and culture systems using media pellets.

A single-use bioreactor is provided. The single-use bioreactor may include a bioprocess container, a shell, at least one agitator, at least one sparger, at least one gas filter inlet port for the sparger(s) and headspace overlay, at least one fill port, at least one harvest port, at least one sample port, and at least one probe. In examples, at least one controller may monitor and control one or more parameters associated with the single-use bioreactor A method to cultivate and propagate mammalian cells is also provided. The method may include cultivating under suitable conditions and in a suitable culture medium in a first single-use bioreactor, transferring the medium containing the cells obtained by propagation from the at least one mammalian cell is into a second single-use bioreactor, transferring the medium containing the cells obtained by propagation from the at least one mammalian cell is into a third single-use bioreactor, and cultivating the cells in the third bioreactor.

The present invention relates to large-scale bioreactors having at least two impellers, large-scale bioreactor systems and methods for the large scale cultivation and propagation of mammalian cells using these bioreactors.

Separating apparatus, comprising a sedimentation settler and a collection vessel disposed underneath and being in fluid communication with the sedimentation settler, the collection vessel forming a receiving chamber having an outlet at or adjacent to the chamber bottom and having an inlet opening, wherein the collection vessel is arranged such the flow direction of the fluid in the area underneath the sedimentation settler is substantially in line with the direction of the channels of the sedimentation settler.

Embodiments of a modular tubular bioreactor system for culturing an aqueous culture of microorganisms are described herein. The tubular bioreactor may comprise culture tubes configured in a vertically spaced and horizontally staggered arrangement to optimize the application of light to the culture in phototrophic and mixotrophic cultivation.

A 5-liter bioreactor vessel enables a substantial increase in the volume of biological media that can be cultivated in the vessel compared to conventional designs. Moreover, when agitated at 1.5 the shaking frequency of a conventional 3-liter bioreactor (i.e., 90 rpm versus 60 rpm), the 5-liter vessel achieves a 19% increase in cell aeration without exceeding the maximum shear stress limit for cell viability. The 5-liter vessel optionally includes a plurality of internal baffles configured to disrupt the liquid vortex and reduce the maximum shear stress transferred to biomedia contained within the vessel.