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The Challenge: Bioprocess Analyzers. One need only look at the seemingly daily headlines regarding the challenges facing our industry to know that we are increasingly being asked to do more with less.
November 25, 2008
The Challenge: Bioprocess Analyzers.
One need only look at the seemingly daily headlines regarding the challenges facing our industry to know that we are increasingly being asked to do more with less.However, in the realm of bioprocess analyzers that is far from the case. With each passing month we seem to learn of innovative ways to obtain more bioprocess data, with increased accuracy. Couple this explosion of insight into the bioprocess with a new generation of bioprocess controllers more than capable of utilizing this rising tide of data to improve the management of the bioprocess and you have an ideal situation for any company with a 20% excess capacity of qualified bioprocess professionals.
The Solution: Automated Sampling
Recognizing that the likelihood of our having a 20% excess of qualified bioprocess professionals on site at this time or in the foreseeable future is not great we must give serious thought to the manner by which we will be capable of obtaining an increasing number of bioprocess samples, have them analyzed, then the resulting analysis populated into the controller and a correlated change in our bioprocess management executed. That having been said, we can no longer rely in the comfort we took from manual sampling. It is time for we as an industry to look to a proven tool for efficiency and accuracy, automated sampling.
At the very core of automated sampling is the practice of an operator being able to schedule the exact date and time that a sample is to be drawn from their bioprocess (Bioreactor, HPLC...) and delivered to the requisite analyzer 24/7. With the data resulting from the analysis then being able to be communicated digitally to the bioprocess controller which is then able to change the bioprocess management methodology to account for the received bioprocess data thus improving the performance of the process without the need for operator intervention.
Sound like wishful thinking, then consider that in a recent industry survey of leading end users 42% stated that OPC connectivity, the digital highway upon which data and commands reside, to 3rd party devices such as Nova, Innovatis, Beckman Coulter, YSI and Groton would be "Required" of future bioprocess control systems and you realize the future is now. Having just read the previous sentence you might be asking yourself, What is a Groton? Your answer, the future.
The Groton ARS is a fully automated sampling system capable of taking samples 24/7 from as many as eight individual locations (Bioreactors, Fermentors, HPLC...) and splitting said samples for delivery to as many as four isolated bioprocess analyzers. Measuring just 17"H x 21"W x 22.5"D and capable of automatic SIP/CIP the OPC enabled ARS represents the culmination of years of practical industry experience in addressing the challenges associated with automated sampling specific to our industry. With 50+ sites at our industries leading end users from Pharma and Biotech in 11 countries with applications in both Cell Culture and Fermentation this experience has served the ARS well.
As you consider the role that automated sampling could play in your facility today give some thought to that most recent memo from management in which you have been told to reduce operating costs, improve process performance, and increase product quality in the shortest time possible and then look to your right and then to your left and realize that one of those people next to you will most likely not be available to assist you in meeting your objectives in 2009. Then ask yourself again the role that automated sampling might be able to play in your facility.
Larry West
Publisher
NEREUS REPORT
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