Monitoring cellular state transitions in a production-scale CHO-cell process using an electronic nose.

An electronic nose is used to monitor the bioreactor off-gas composition in perfused cultivations of a CHO-cell line producing recombinant human blood coagulation factor VIII. The applicability of the electronic nose for monitoring cellular state transitions and process control is explained. It is shown that the instrument can reveal characteristic process states related to product and lactate formation, and detect microbial infections in a very early stage of the infection. The visualization of ideal process conditions is realized by using principal component analysis (PCA) and the on-line applicability of this method is outlined. The results illustrate the potential of the electronic nose as on-line sensor for ensuring product and process quality in production-scale bioprocesses.