ABSTRACT
Recent advances in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic cell culture technology have led to substantial increases in the volumetric productivity of bioreactor processes. These increases are mainly due to the ability to grow commonly used expression systems such as bacteria, yeast, and even mammalian cells to very high density. The sheer amount of biomass accumulated in these processes poses significant capacity and throughput challenges to solid-liquid separation steps preceding primary recovery. Additionally, high performance bioreactor processes result in a cell population that might be significantly more stressed, rendering it more susceptible to damage by conventional solid-liquid separation methods. Finally, in times of limited manufacturing capacity, plant throughput becomes a major focus of process development, demanding streamlined recovery operations, where two or more unit operations are combined in innovative single steps.
