Dr Aditya Bhat talks about monitoring viable stem cell cultures in realtime

Following FDA’s PAT initiative, it is imperative that critical process parameters (CPP) that significantly impact critical quality attributes (CQA’s) of a process are monitored and controlled strictly. It is also well known that viable biomass is one such CPP, or even a Key Performance Indicator, which can impact CQA’s in a biopharmaceutical process. Dielectric spectroscopy, often referred to as capacitance measurement, has been used for monitoring biomass in bioprocesses in real time routinely over the past two decades. This technology has been used in the industry for applications ranging from batch fingerprinting, troubleshooting, optimization of nutrient feed, viral infection, cell density control, scale up, among others. Over the past few years, the field of regenerative medicine is increasingly gaining attention. Owing to its success in various bioprocess applications, dielectric spectroscopy has also been evaluated for processes involving regenerative medicine and monitoring cell density in 3D tissues. This talk will endeavor to cover these recent applications, in an effort to understand where the technology is headed in the next few years, while also summarizing the technology’s current standing in the industry.