Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Vol.63, No.4, 484-492, 1999
Predictive control of hollow-fiber bioreactors for the production of monoclonal antibodies
The selection of medium feed rates for perfusion bioreactors represents a challenge for process optimization, particularly in bioreactors that are sampled infrequently. When the present and immediate future of a bioprocess can be adequately described, predictive control can minimize deviations from set points in a manner that can maximize process consistency. Predictive control of perfusion hollow-fiber bioreactors was investigated in a series of hybridoma cell cultures that compared operator control to computer estimation of feed rates. Adaptive software routines were developed to estimate the current and predict the future glucose uptake and lactate production of the bioprocess at each sampling interval. The current and future glucose uptake rates were used to select the perfusion feed rate in a designed response to deviations from the set point values. The routines presented a graphical user interface through which the operator was able to view the up-to-date culture performance and assess the model description of the immediate future culture performance. In addition, fewer samples were taken in the computer-estimated cultures, reducing labor and analytical expense. The use of these predictive controller routines and the graphical user interface decreased the glucose and lactate concentration variances up to sevenfold, and antibody yields increased by 10% to 43%.
Keywords:MODEL ADAPTIVE-CONTROL;FED-BATCH FERMENTATION;CELL-CULTURE;PRESSURE;GLUCOSE;CULTIVATION;DENSITY;SYSTEMS;GROWTH