Cytiva and Culture Biosciences Plan to Innovate Upstream Bioprocessing

Officials at Cytiva and Culture Biosciences say the companies are collaborating to advance innovation in upstream bioprocessing by providing customers greater access to predictive and robust scale-up capabilities. Cytiva and Culture Biosciences aim to bring to customers new bioprocess solutions that use digitization, in-silico approaches, and virtual monitoring and control of experiments, according to Nicolas Pivet, head of automation, controls, digital and learning, Cytiva.

“Cytiva is excited to work with Culture Biosciences to help customers gain confidence that the process and data produced from our collaborative platform will help them predict performance at the next level, whether it be clinical or commercial scale,” he says. “You can accelerate the therapeutic process development.”

As the first step in this new collaboration, Cytiva’s Bioreactor Scaler* tool now includes Culture Biosciences’ 250 mL bioreactor. The Bioreactor Scaler tool reportedly enables scaling between development and manufacturing. Scientists can identify scale-up or scale-down process control parameters by entering in their existing process details and cell line characteristics. The tool helps to de-risk scaling activities and ensure product quality, notes Pivet, pointing out that teams can collaborate virtually from anywhere.

“We are thrilled by the prospect to advance upstream bioprocess development with a global leader in the development, manufacturing and delivery of therapeutics,” adds Will Patrick, CEO, Culture Biosciences. “Digital technologies have greatly advanced other manufacturing sectors in recent years. We look forward to our work with Cytiva to bring similar innovation to upstream bioprocess development, for the benefit of both our customers and their patients.”

Culture Biosciences’ upstream bioprocess platform


Customers design and monitor their experiments, collaborate on projects, and access and analyze data on a fully integrated platform that combines:

  • 250mL bioreactors and 5L bioreactors, each with single-use vessels for mammalian cell lines or microbial fermentation. The 250mL reactors are mounted in mobile cart modules of four units.
  • Cloud-based software to design and monitor experiments remotely, and to integrate and analyze data in one place. Remote, hybrid, or multi-location teams can collaborate virtually on this platform.
  • A suite of proprietary tools for process design and data analysis. These tools include a data analysis suite that enables rapid analysis and understanding of process and offline analytical data.

More than 70 client companies have used the platform with their upstream bioprocess development in the five years since the company began operations in 2018, explains Patrick. Customers include large, top-10 biopharma companies, CDMOs, and emerging and growing biotech clients, he adds.

* Bioreactor Scaler tool is a trademark of Global Life Sciences Solutions USA LLC or an affiliate doing business as Cytiva.