Although at first, they may appear complicated and intimidating, FiberCell Systems hollow fiber bioreactors are actually easy to use.
To help you get started, we provide a complimentary video CD manual, a conference call, and telephone troubleshooting. Upon request, we are happy to provide on-site setup and training for you and your staff.
Our first level of technical support is our complimentary FiberCell Systems Video Resources CD. It contains an extensive list of references, User’s Manual, Quick Start Guide, and over one hour of videos that demonstrate the setup and use of our system.
If you would like to receive a copy of our FiberCell Systems Video Resources CD, please fill out this form.
After your purchase, we will contact you to schedule a conference call during which we will review hollow fiber cell culture protocols and answer any specific questions you may have.
Customers are encouraged to engage with us at any time with questions about their FiberCell Systems bioreactors and related products. In order to be most helpful, we want to remind you that good sterile technique is of utmost importance. As long as the hollow fiber cartridge is not contaminated, we can fix anything!
We can perform troubleshooting over Skype video conferencing to best showcase our products. No matter where you are in the world, we will be able to assist you.
We provide on-site setup and training for an additional fee and travel expenses. Please contact us for pricing.
Simply perform your harvest as usual. One of the issues that many researchers have when using our system is that they are afraid to harvest out too many cells. The cartridge can be overgrown if you don’t remove cells. After centrifugation your cell pellet should be between 1-3 mL or more (with the C5011 as much as 5 mL). Simply decant off the supernatant and re-suspend the cell pellet in 2 pellet volumes of fresh medium that has been diluted 10% with sterile distilled water. Leave it overnight at room temperature. The cells will consume the medium and also the hypotonicity will slightly squeeze the cells causing them to release any intracellularly sequestered antibody. This will get you an extra few milligrams every time you harvest.
Too few cells in relation to volume of media can result in lag phase. In the hollow fiber cartridge lag phase can be defined by the cells not consuming glucose but still show significant viability via the trypan exclusion assay. Always seed the cartridge with the recommended cell density. If this is not possible, adjust the volume of media down to keep the cells in culture from being too dilute.If the cells do go into lag phase you can either:
Hybridoma cells growing at high density in the C2011 cartridge using CDM-HD medium
To keep contamination at a minimum, clean the inside of the hood weekly, remembering to remove the working surface and clean underneath. Be sure the hood is validated on a regular basis. Never pour media, always pipette. Always wear a lab coat. Wait 60 seconds for the air currents to stabilize inside the incubator. Pull hair back and be sure to never have bare flesh inside the hood. Use plenty of alcohol and wipes but remember, it is not the application of alcohol that sterilizes, it is the evaporation. Good sterile technique will allow production from the cartridge for many months or more. We have produced a monoclonal antibody for over one year of continuous production.
New cell lines should always be quarantined until a mycoplasma screen has shown negative. The presence of mycoplasma contamination can be hard to detect without specific assays. The culture will just appear to be non-productive.
Various components of serum. The major component, BSA binds many substances non-specifically and can be an overwhelming protein burden in some purification schemes, immunoglobulins can interfere with specific antibody purifications and the “other” can have many undefined effects. None of these characteristics will be reproducible from lot to lot.