Beckman Coulter Life Sciences Cydem VT Automated Clone Screening System

Beckman Coulter Life Sciences, a company of Danaher Corporation, has launched the Cydem VT Automated Clone Screening System — a high-throughput microbioreactor platform for automated top clone screening. The system is designed to reduce time to market for biologic drug discovery and monoclonal antibody-based therapeutics, by slashing manual laboratory steps in cell line development by up to 90% in a single experiment and eliminating the need for many subsequent traditional screening steps.

By delivering early answers for cell growth and productivity in the cell line development process, the system is said to provide labs with higher-quality clones compared to traditional methods, along with cultivation conditions that are closer to biomanufacturing production. The all-in-one, high-throughput screening platform is suitable for cell line development of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell lines producing monoclonal antibodies (mAbs).

The system combines multiple Beckman Coulter Life Sciences technologies — including microbioreactor, liquid handling, antibody titre and cell health (cell count and viability) measurements — into one platform that empowers lab managers with an effective, high-throughput method for top clone screening. It allows parallel pH-controlled, fed-batch cultivation and monitoring of up to 96 bioreactors with individual gassing.

Automated operations provide at least three days of walkaway time during an experiment. Online, non-invasive pH, dissolved oxygen (DO) and biomass measurements provide continuous control over critical cultivation parameters. On-deck determination of cell concentration, viability and titre concentration enable informed selection of the top clones.