SBIR Phase II: Resonant Sensors for Wireless Monitoring of Viable Cell Concentration in Small, Disposable Bioreactors

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is the creation of a sensor system for cell-based manufacturing of such products as biologic therapies, food ingredients, and bio-based materials. These sensors will overcome current limitations for tracking critical cell growth data, which requires manual sampling with slow turnaround times. This system will enable better predictive growth models for improved production process development and will lead to better decision-making on cell type and culture conditions to produce biologic material. Better performance at this stage leads to potentially significant savings during the manufacturing lifetime of the drug. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is focused on developing a wireless sensor system to address the need of continuously monitoring viable cell density during biomanufacturing. Many industries use cells for production, but the initial focus is upstream development of cell therapies and biologics. Central to this development is tracking the growth of cells in a variety of small-scale, single-use bioreactors to determine key event points for feed and harvest. Current methods rely on infrequent sampling and off-line counting due to the volume required, risk of contamination, and cost. The central research objective is to develop methods for standardized sensor and reader fabrication and quality testing for calibration studies in commercially-relevant environments and systems. The proposed project will develop: 1) sensor stickers that are applied to the exterior of culture vessels, 2) readers that interrogate the sensor, and 3) algorithms to convert the sensor signal to cell count and push notifications to operators. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.