Combination stirrer

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10076731-B2
Application number	US-201013375153-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 2, 2010
Priority date	Jun 5, 2009
Publication date	Sep 18, 2018
Grant date	Sep 18, 2018

Abstract

The present patent application describes a stirrer comprising a combination of at least one axially-conveying element and at least one radially-conveying element relative to the rotary shaft of the stirrer wherein the largest diameter of the at least one axially-conveying element is equal to or less than the inner diameter d i of the radially-conveying element. In one embodiment the stirrer according to the invention is a combination of one anchor stirrer with at least one inclined-blade stirrer. Furthermore the use of the stirrer according to the invention for the culture of cells in a dialysis method is described.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A device comprising an agitator and a dialysis module within a cultivation vessel, wherein the agitator comprises:
a shaft comprising a shaft axis;
one anchor impeller comprising at least two opposing stirrer blades, wherein the stirrer blades of the anchor impeller have no pitch with respect to the shaft axis; and
one or more inclined-blade stirrers each comprising at least two stirrer blades, wherein the stirrer blades of each inclined-blade stirrer have a pitch with respect to the shaft axis;
wherein the stirrer blades of the anchor impeller are parallel to each other;
wherein an outer diameter of all inclined-blade stirrers is equal to or less than an inner diameter of the anchor impeller;
wherein all inclined-blade stirrers are individually connected to the anchor impeller;
wherein all inclined-blade stirrers are located within the anchor impeller;
wherein all conveying elements have a fixed spatial orientation relative to each other;
wherein an outer diameter of an inclined-blade stirrer is a maximum distance between a plurality of tips of opposing stirrer blades of each inclined-blade stirrer and an inner diameter of the anchor impeller is a minimum distance between inner edges of opposing stirrer blades of the anchor impeller; and
wherein the agitator is configured to improve mixing and mass transport within the cultivation vessel without increasing shear stress.

2. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the ratio d/D of agitator diameter (d) to cultivation vessel diameter (D) ranges from 0.2 to 0.8.

3. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the ratio H/D of filling height of the cultivation vessel (H) to cultivation vessel width (D) ranges from 1.0 to 2.5.

4. A method for the production of a polypeptide comprising
a) providing a cell comprising a nucleic acid encoding the polypeptide,
b) providing a device according to claim 1 ,
c) cultivating the cell in the device in a cultivation medium wherein the agitator provides a turbulent flow within the cultivation vessel, and
d) recovering the polypeptide from the cells or the cultivation medium and thereby producing a polypeptide.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the cultivating comprises dialysis.

6. The method according to claim 4 or 5 , wherein the cell is a mammalian cell.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the mammalian cell is selected from the group consisting of a CHO cell, a BHK cell, an NSO cell, a COS cell, a PER.C6 cell, a Sp2/0 cell, and a HEK 293 cell.

8. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the polypeptide is an antibody.

9. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the number of inclined-blade stirrers is 1 or 2 or 3.

10. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the opposing stirrer blades of the anchor impeller are linked to each other by two opposite stirrer blades of an inclined-blade stirrer.

11. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the pitch of the stirrer blades of the inclined-blade stirrer is between 10° and 80° relative to the shaft axis of the agitator.

12. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the anchor impeller has a height of at least 200 mm.

13. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the agitator is configured to generate an average mixing index of approximately 31 at a constant Reynold's number.

14. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the agitator is configured to generate a mass transfer coefficient k a in the dialysis module that is greater than 1.6×10 −4 (l/s) over a specific volumetric power input (P/V) range that varies from about 50 to about 500 W/m 3 .

15. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the agitator is configured to generate a power coefficient Ne that is greater than 10 over a Reynold's number range that varies from about 2×10 4 to about 1×10 5 .

16. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the agitator is configured to generate a mixing coefficient C H that is less than 35 over a Reynold's number range that varies from about 2×10 4 to about 2×10 5 .

Assignees

• Jenzsch Marco
• Lechner Max
• Pohlscheidt Michael
• Reese Christoph
• Scholz Alexander
• Tebbe Hermann
• Hoffmann La Roche

Inventors

• Jenzsch Marco
• Lechner Max
• Pohlscheidt Michael
• Reese Christoph
• Scholz Alexander
• Tebbe Hermann

Classifications

• C12M27/02 Primary

  Stirrer or mobile mixing elements · CPC title

• B01F7/00341

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B01F7/0025

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B01F7/00266

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B01F7/00641 Primary

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic