Corning's cell culture monitoring system enables data-driven decisions for large-scale cell applications by providing remote, real-time monitoring of cell confluence in multi-layered cell culture vessels

Background & Aim There is currently a demand for new technologies to address the challenges associated with large-scale production for the vast number of emerging cell and gene therapy applications. One specific pain point for upstream bioprocess scientists is the inability to effectively monitor processes involving adherent cell types. Today's complex cell culture protocols require scientists to accurately know the confluence level of a vessel to achieve the optimal productivity for a specific process step. Currently, there is no way to remotely monitor the confluence level for each vessel in a production lot in real-time. As a result, scientists are forced to manually interrogate a limited number of surrogate vessels and then make a subjective estimation of the confluence value. This process results in inadequate data that can lead to high variability and suboptimal performance. Methods, Results & Conclusion To address this issue, Corning has invented a novel technology that will enable customers to remotely monitor cell confluence in multi-layered cell culture vessels. The system can capture high-quality cell images and determine accurate machine-generated confluence values. Real-time confluence values are displayed on dashboards that can be accessed remotely by the user. Separate operating environments have been developed for process development and production workstreams. Overall, the Corning technology offers several key advantages over the current process. Most importantly, real-time monitoring of cell confluence will allow scientists to make data-driven decisions, thereby improving the consistency and overall performance of their processes. The current strategy of making time-based decisions is not suitable for today's increasingly complex protocols. The first product to be available will monitor cell confluence in Corning® CellSTACK® cell culture vessels. The system has been used to monitor the growth of several industry-relevant cell lines. For each cell line tested, very strong correlation was observed between the Corning monitoring system and a traditional microscope. Corning's technology addresses a key gap in today's large-scale cell manufacturing process; namely the inability to effectively monitor cell confluence in production-scale vessels. The technology will allow customers to achieve a better fundamental understanding of their processes and make data-driven decisions to improve consistency and overall performance.