Shaken vessels are widely used for large scale suspension cell culture. However, while microtiter plates and small vessels have been applied to automation for a longer time already, large scale shaken vessels like 600 ml TubeSpin Bioreactors were not automatable because essential equipment like incubator shakers were not prepared for this task. In cooperation with our Dutch partner Lab Services a customized system for automated suspension cell culture, termed CellGuard, was developed for the Frankfurt production site of the French pharmaceutical and healthcare company Sanofi. Specifically for this project, Kuhner shaker designed the customized ISF1-Z Basic Beluga which provides more head space in the interior, allowing the robot arm of Lab Services’ PlateButler® to move above all vessels. The Beluga also comes with an automatic door, an exact stop position, and an interface for data/commands transfer to the CellGuard Manager. The CellGuard system can be used for automated cell counting, viability measurement, sub culturing and expansion of mammalian suspension cells. Furthermore, transient transfection for expression of recombinant proteins for research purpose can be performed.

More information about the ISF1-Z Basic Beluga can be found on our website. The CellGuard poster is available in our Science Room in the section “Cell culture” of the Science Notes.
Watch the video of the ISF1-Z Basic Beluga on our Youtube Channel!

If you have a customer who might also be interested in a customized solution for automated cell culture processes, please contact us at office@kuhner.com.