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10/10/2004
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A company that specialises in automated life science applications is using peristaltic pumps on a fully automated flexible batch cell culture machine.
Based in Royston, The Automation Partnership (TAP) developed the cell culture machine, SelecT, in conjunction with six major pharmaceutical companies to meet the challenge of producing high quality, consistent cells for drug discovery on demand.
SelecT measures 2m x 2m x 3m and provides a completely controlled class 100 hepa-filtered environment for totally sterile cell culture growth. This allows pharmaceutical firms to screen five days per week, by growing and harvesting cell lines overnight or at weekends without supervision.
The heart of the machine relies on 15, 314D peristaltic pump heads supplied by Watson-Marlow Bredel. These pumps are mounted vertically on the machine's external front face, metering process fluids such as cell culture media or PBS rinse solution. The machine uses silicone tubing linked to a rack or refrigerator containing the fluids, liquid is transferred into the sealed unit of the SelecT for metering onto cells.
The machine also uses two, 313FAC pumps from the same company. These transfer the fluid required for the washing and priming station, which is used to clean the cell pooling and dispensing pot. From here, the cells are dispensed into 'multiwell' plates.
David Jervis, applications manager at TAP commented: "Unlike manual cell cultivation methods, SelecT enables the entire automation of the process, resulting in increased consistency and individual cell traceability."
The cell growth and harvesting process begins by placing flasks of cells into an incubator within the unit, which are then fed with cell culture media. After the cell culture media surrounding the cells no longer contains any food, the fluid is pumped out of the unit and safely disposed of. During this period, the cells will have grown considerably and will be ready for splitting into multiple batches.
Once the batches are fully confluent (the entire base covered with a single layer of cells) they are all harvested, pooled together and robotically placed into the cell counter, ready for final stages of growth.
Both types of pump on the machine are designed for 24-hour operation. The 313FAC has flow rates at 50Hz of up to 1,350ml/min at 270rpm. The 314D pumps have four rollers for minimum pulsation and accept seven tube sizes without the need for adjustment.
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Author
Tom Shelley
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