About
Researchers are invariably required to optimize growth conditions to maximize the quality and yield of the various biologics produced using cellular systems. This involves manipulating multiple growth media and process variables (factors) to establish how they impact the quality target product profile (QTPP) and has traditionally been performed using a one-factor-at-a-time (OFAT) approach.
Despite its widespread use, OFAT is only truly effective if the factors under investigation do not interact with one another. In practice, this is rarely the case. To overcome the limitations of OFAT, the Design of Experiments (DoE) was developed as a more sophisticated method to investigate multiple factors in parallel and reveal how those factors are interrelated. However, although DoE offers many advantages over OFAT, its use within the biotech industry has been limited due to a lack of implementation experience and complexity in liquid handling, as well as speed and throughput constraints where multiple factors are changing at once.
To overcome these challenges, the execution, planning, and data management capabilities of the Synthace Software Platform were combined with the highspeed, automated MANTIS® Liquid Dispenser from FORMULATRIX. Leveraging the synergy between these technologies, scientists completed a 12-factor DoE to optimize growth conditions, which consisted of 1,298 unique runs and nearly 10,000 liquid handling steps. With the combination of the MANTIS liquid dispenser and the Synthace platform, researchers were able to carry out a complex multifactorial study with upwards of 70% time savings compared to traditional methods.
Time savings offered by Synthace and MANTIS compared to alternative approaches. Combining the MANTIS® liquid dispenser and the Synthace software platform to plan, execute, and aggregate data for 3 DoE iterations achieves a time saving of up to 74% for 96-run screening DoE in a 96 deep well plate, compared to using Synthace with another liquid handler or using the MANTIS without Synthace. (Expected times are based on in-house experience of manual implementation and simulations in Synthace.
About the Speaker:
Keenan Jarvis is the Partnerships Manager at Synthace. He has an educational background in biological science and has worked on federally-funded research projects studying trophic interactions of microbes. At Synthace, he works to enable collaboration between the hardware and software ecosystem to provide comprehensive research tools for biologists.
About the Speaker:
Talha Bin Rahat, the Application Scientist at FORMULATRIX, holds a master's degree in Healthcare Biotechnology. With a strong background in Forensic Biology, Molecular Biology, Biotechnology, and Virology, he has over three years of lab experience following ISO 17025 principles. Additionally, he has six months of field experience as a crime and death scene investigator.