CONTINUOUS FLOW SYSTEM FOR HYBRIDOMA MICROENCAPSULATION

THE AIM OF THIS PHASE I RESEARCH IS TO DEVELOP LABORATORY DATA ON AND A THEORETICAL MODEL OF AN INNOVATIVE CONCEPT OF A CONTINUOUS FLOW SYSTEM FOR THE GELATION OF ALGINATE MICROENCAPSULATED HYBRIDOMA CELLS AND THE TRANSFER OF THE RESULTING GELLED ALGINATE SPHERES FROM A TOXIC CALCIUM ENVIRONMENT TO A SALINE ENVIRONMENT. THE PRIMARY PURPOSE OF THE EXPERIMENTS IS TO SEE IF IT IS POSSIBLE TO CONTROL THE CAPSULE RESIDENCE TIME AND PRODUCE UNIFORMLY REPRODUCIBLE CAPSULES. A SECONDARY PURPOSE IS TO ENHANCE THE VOLUME OF MONOCIONAL ANTIBODY PRODUCTION OVER THAT NOW ACHIEVABLE BY BATCH PROCEDURES AND MINIMIZE SERUM USAGE. A LABORATORY-SCALE, NONSTERILE, PLEXIGLASS FREEFALL AND PACKED BED-WASH COLUMN WILL BE SET UP FOR MEASUREMENT OF THE PHYSICAL-CHEMICAL PARAMETERS. THE ALGINATE DROPS FROM A DROP FORMER ON TOP OF THE FREE-FALL COLUMN WILL BE GELLED INTO CAPSULES UPON FALLING INTO A CALCIUM CHLORIDE SOLUTION. THE CAPSULES WILL BE CONTINUOUSLY TRANSFERRED TO A MOVING BED-WASH COLUMN WHERE THE CALCIUM SOLUTION WILL BE REPLACED BY A SALINE SOLUTION. THE PARAMETER RANGE FOR CONTINUOUS AND STABLE OPERATION WILL BE MEASURED. SIMULTANEOUSLY, A THEORETICAL MODELING ANALYSIS WILL BE UNDERTAKEN. EMPLOYING THE LABORATORY DATA AND THEORETICAL RESULTS, GENERIC RELATIONS WILL BE SET OUT TO DEFINE OPTIMALOPERATION AND SCALING LAWS IN TERMS OF THE SYSTEM PARAMETERS.