New paper by BioThrust: ๐ก๐-๐ต๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐น๐น ๐บ๐ฎ๐ป๐๐ณ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฐ๐ต๐บ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ธ ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น๐ฒ!
The bioprocess experts from BioThrust Yasemin van Heuvel, Valentin von Werz and the group of Oliver Spadiut at Technische Universitรคt Wien and the team at SimVantage released this publication on NK-92 cell manufacturing.
The team collaborated to compare our ComfyCell bioreactor with a conventional pitched-blade stirred-tank bioreactor (2 L scale). While both systems supported comparable growth, viability, and metabolic profiles, the difference in function was significant:
- NK-92 cell line expanded in the ComfyCell system showed significantly higher cytotoxicity.
- Computational fluid dynamics revealed that a more homogeneous shear environment likely preserves and enhances cell function.
๐๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ธ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ฎ๐: ๐ฃ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐๐ ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐๐ถ๐ด๐ป ๐ฑ๐ผ๐ฒ๐๐ปโ๐ ๐ท๐๐๐ ๐ถ๐บ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ ๐ฒ๐ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป, ๐ถ๐ ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐น๐ ๐ถ๐ป๐ณ๐น๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐น๐น ๐ฝ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ฐ๐!
This work highlights a scalable bioreactor strategy for producing highly functional NK cells, supporting the advancement of allogeneic, off-the-shelf cell therapies!
Congratulations to everyone involved, we believe this is yet another clear example of why BioThrust`s ComfyCell bioreactor is ideally suited to cost-efficient commercial manufacturing of sensitive cells.
Download the paper here
Abstract
The immortalized NK-92 cell line is widely used to study natural killer (NK) cell biology and develop immunotherapies. NK-92 cells exhibit strong cytotoxic activity against tumor and virus-infected cells and are often used as a functional surrogate for primary NK cells. Beyond research applications, NK-92 cells are currently being evaluated in clinical trials as an allogeneic, off-the-shelf cell therapy. NK cells are typically cultured in static systems, which limits scalability. For clinical and commercial applications, large-scale cell expansion requires scalable platforms, such as bioreactors. However, conventional bubble-aerated bioreactors generate shear stress and foam, which can impair proliferation during prolonged culture and compromise cell quality. To address these limitations, a membrane-based stirring and aeration system was compared to a conventional pitched-blade impeller with microsparger aeration in 2 L stirred-tank bioreactors. NK-92 cells were expanded from static pre-cultures into shake flasks and subsequently inoculated into each bioreactor with continuous feeding to maintain ideal nutrient supply. Both systems supported comparable growth, viability, and metabolic profiles. Cells showed comparable growth, viability and metabolism profile in both systems. However, cells expanded in the membrane-based system exhibited markedly higher cytotoxicity and cytotoxic capacity. Computational fluid dynamic simulations of both systems suggest that this observation is likely attributable to the more homogeneous shear distribution in the membrane-stirred setup compared to the pitched-blade configuration. Overall, this work presents a novel cultivation method to produce highly cytotoxic NK-92 cells in a well scalable stirred-tank bioreactor platform for allogeneic off-the-shelf cell therapy.
