Feasibility of a Fixed Bed Bioreactor for Expansion of hESCs

Thursday 08:00 PDT / 11:00 EDT / 16:00 BST / 17:00 CEST

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Feasibility of a Fixed Bed Bioreactor for Expansion of hESCs

Live30 webinars are thirty minute presentations designed to update you on the latest innovations, applications and data in a fast yet interactive format.

As a leader in the development of pancreatic precursor cells for the treatment of Type 1 diabetes, ViaCyte scientists are continuously exploring new technologies to enable expanded scales of culturing human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). Cell therapies hold immense potential to change the lives of patients, but they are limited by production capacity. ViaCyte scientists identified a novel fixed bed bioreactor platform, the Corning® Ascent™ FBR system, as a point of interest due to its capacity for increasing adherent culture scale.

This presentation will review their experience, successfully culturing and expanding hESCs across multiple passages while characterizing for yields and pluripotency. In addition, ViaCyte will discuss some of the general challenges in the field associated with large scale cell therapy manufacturing and how advances such as the Corning Ascent FBR system may impact them.

Challenges in scaling up stem cells and the advantages and disadvantages of adherent ("2D") and suspension ("3D") platforms
How a high-density, scalable, fixed bed bioreactor platform can offer a potential solution for stem cell scale-up from seed train to production
The automatic cell harvest process through multiple passages using the Corning Ascent FBR system
Results of ViaCyte's evalution of the Corning Ascent FBR system, including cell yield, viability, pluripotency and karyotyping

Hannah Rasby

Senior Process Development Engineer at ViaCyte, Inc.

Hannah Rasby is a Senior Process Development Engineer at ViaCyte, Inc. in San Diego, California. She is working to optimize and scale the manufacturing process of an innovative stem cell derived product aiming to treat diabetes. Her background includes graduate studies in regenerative medicine at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, as well as work in medical device development at Rock West Solutions.