Recirculation/Perfusion Guide For The iCELLis™ Bioreactor

The iCELLis™ Nano and iCELLis 500+ bioreactors are single-use, fixed-bed bioreactors designed for scaling up adherent cell culture processes, particularly for gene therapy applications like adeno-associated virus (AAV) and lentivirus vectors. These bioreactors use proprietary macrocarriers with varying compactions and fixed-bed heights, offering a wide range of cell growth surface area from 0.53 m² in the iCELLis Nano to up to 500 m² in the iCELLis 500+. The most straightforward process that can be run in the iCELLis bioreactor range is a batch process, where the bioreactors are filled with cell culture medium and cells to a defined working volume without adding additional medium. In batch processes, cells gradually consume nutrients from the medium, and cell metabolites and inhibitors accumulate over time, limiting the duration of the process based on the nutrient consumption rate and metabolite build-up. Additionally, an optimized process transferred from flatware may require a working volume beyond the maximum capacity of the iCELLis bioreactors, adding another constraint to batch processes. To overcome these limitations, two alternative processes, recirculation and perfusion, are possible in the iCELLis bioreactors.