Cell culturing

In biotechnology, the creation of cell cultures is an important element. This applies to bioreactors that produce biological substances via cells. As well as to systems in cell culturing that are used as test systems for the effect of pharmaceuticals.

The culturing of whole cell lines is intended to provide comparable cell material for investigations. In order for the cells to fulfil their tasks, they must be appropriately supplied in the bioreactors.

A functional organ-on-a-chip in cell culturing includes

The appropriate temperature,
Optimal light conditions and
The supply of nutrients (e.g. glucose) or the addition of growth promoters or inhibitors

Many tasks in cell culturing can be performed by automatic pump systems. These are superior to purely manual dosing in terms of quality and convenience. Our mp6 micropumps can be placed very close to the reactors due to their small size, low power requirements and long lifetime. This also makes placement in the incubator easy to set up.

What is an organ-on-a-chip?

An organ-on-a-chip is a multi-channel 3-D microfluidic biochip. It simulates the activities, mechanics and physiological response of whole organs and organ systems. Therefore, it performs like a kind of artificial organ.

C-CIT Sensors AG - Using microfluidics in cell culturing

The application of our customer C-Cit is particularly exciting: A preassembled flow cell with glucose and/or lactate sensor.

C-Cit Sensors AG has developed a system that can measure glucose and/or lactates in a flow cell. This organ-on-a-chip is particularly useful in checking cell growth.

The flow cell is the best choice for long-term monitoring in tube-based reactor systems as well as in any perfusion-based bioprocess. It features a flat bottom with no dead volume. This allows the culture medium to flow through the cell. Additionally, it avoids cell aggregation in or around the sensor. This allows for low-disturbance cell culturing.

The flow cell housing and cover are made of USP VI certified material. Furthermore, the flow cell is gamma sterilized. It is connected to the C-Cit systems CITSens Bio or CITSens MeMo and the mp6 micropump. The flow cell can be used for media delivery. It can be connected with either Luerlock or weldable tubing. On top of that, it can also be ordered as a pre-assembled system with an mp6 micropump.

The mp6 micropump handles reagent delivery to the sensor in this cell culturing application. By using a micropump, the entire organ-on-a-chip application remains very small. This means that only small amounts of reagents are required.