Finesse Solutions and Biogen Idec are using software and sensor technologies on the job to refine existing bioprocessing platforms into home-grown single-use systems. Finesse will provide prototype sensors, software, and systems to Biogen Idec for use with the latter's bioprocessing platforms. Biogen Idec will undertake the single-use refinement work.
A lot of brainpower has been spent on disposable technology lately: Millipore last month unveiled a stirred-tank single-use benchtop bioreactor that's said to be ready to use out of the box. Millipore worked with Netherlands-based Applikon Biotechnology on the design, as reported earlier. And both Sartorious Stedim and Pall Life Sciences, among others, offer single-use components and systems.
Finesse itself has also been busy on the single-use front. The company announced in March the TruFluor pH and temperature sensor, which consists of a disposable sheath, an optical reader, and a transmitter. The sheath can be pre-inserted in a disposable bioreactor bag port and irradiated with the bag to preserve and guarantee the sterile barrier. And in February, it unveiled the TruTorr a single-use sensor for measuring headspace pressure in single-use containers.
- here's the Finesse/Biogen Idec release
- see the TruFluor release
- and here's the TruTorr announcement