Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
of the complexity of spectra of multiple components, high-level resolution
programming is required.
Finesse Solutions, LLC (
www.iesse.com
)
, a manufacturer of measure-
ment and control solutions for life sciences process applications, announced
a live demonstration of its new SmartBag product for rocker bioreactors at
Interphex 2011 in New York, March 29-31. SmartBags are designed to be
plug-and-play bioprocessing containers having full measurement capability
for at least 21 days.
The SmartBag SensorPak leverages TruFluor pH and DO phase fluoromet-
ric technology in a compact assembly that is precalibrated using a SmartChip
and provides accurate, drift-free, in situ measurements. The combined pH
and DO optical reader uses advanced optical components including a large
area photodiode that minimizes photodegradation of the active-sensing ele-
ments. The SensorPak also leverages TruFluor temperature 316 L stainless
steel thermal window for highly stable readings. The SensorPak is welded
into the single-use vessel and eliminates the need for sterile connectors and
their associated complications such as leakage and batch contamination. All
wetted materials of the SensorPak are USP class VI compliant and, being
identical to TruFluor, allow directly measurement comparisons and scale-up
from 10 L rocker bags to 2,000 L SUBs.
The biosensors manufactured by Fluorometrix are noninvasive, membrane
sensors developed using optical fluorometric chemistries that can be directly
incorporated into any disposable bioreactor bags. Because the sensors can
be manufactured into any type of single-use bag, they are useful for both
upstream and downstream applications. Also, these are compatible with the
FDA's PAT initiative.
Many metabolic products in a bioreactor can be readily detected by IR
spectroscopy but water-absorbed IR beam can only be NIR or SIR for bio-
mass analysis when used in the transmission mode. However, attenuated
total reflectance spectroscopy (ATRIR) is based on the reflection of light at
an interface of two phases with different indices of refraction, and the light
beam penetrates into the medium with the lower refraction index in the
dimension of one wavelength. Absorption of IR results in decrease in the
intensity of the reflected beam to detect the analyte. Probes for both types
of IR spectroscopy are used. Hitec-Zang (
www.hitec-zang.de
) offers a large
range of PAT devices including IR systems.
NIR transmission probes and ATR IR probes for bioreactors are now com-
mercially available. These are connected through silver halide fibers or radio
frequency connectors.
In addition to IR and fluorescence, optical methods based on photolumi-
nescence, reflection, and absorption are also used. The optical electrodes or
“optodes” can be attached using glass fibers leaving the measurement equip-
ment outside of the bioreactor as discussed earlier for fluorescence detectors
allowing use of these chemosensors in situ or online.
