Nutrient monitoring and feedback control for increased bioproduct production

1. An automated method of increasing the quantity of a bioproduct produced, or decreasing bioproduct production time, in a bioreactor cell culture process, the method comprising:

(a) intermittently or continuously analyzing one or more carbohydrates or vitamins in the bioreactor cell culture by means of an automated sampling device to generate data representative of the concentration of said one or more carbohydrates or vitamins;

(b) processing said data by means of a computer-based processing program to determine an amount of nutrient media to add to the bioreactor; and,

(c) adding said amount of nutrient media determined in (b) to the bioreactor cell culture by means of an automated feed device when the concentration of said one or more carbohydrates or vitamins is below a target value.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein nutrient media is added to the bioreactor cell culture based on analysis of the concentration of only one type of carbohydrate or vitamin.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the carbohydrate or vitamin is partially or wholly consumed during the bioreactor cell culture process.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein said one or more carbohydrate is selected from the group consisting of: glucose, galactose, maltose, fructose, and combinations thereof.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said one or more vitamin is selected from the group consisting of: a B group vitamins, vitamin A, vitamin E, riboflavin, thiamine, biotin, and combinations thereof.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cells in the bioreactor cell culture comprise Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the bioproduct comprises an antibody, antibody fragment, or antigen-binding polypeptide.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein said nutrient media is added to the bioreactor cell culture in an amount sufficient to maintain a substantially stable concentration of said one or more carbohydrates or vitamins throughout the bioreactor cell culture process.

9. The method of claim 1 , where steps (a) to (c) are repeated greater than 10 times throughout the bioreactor cell culture process.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein steps (a) to (c) are repeated a number of times in a range selected from the group consisting of:

(a) about every 4 minutes to about every 18 hours throughout the bioreactor cell culture process;

(b) about every 10 minutes to about every 6 hours throughout the bioreactor cell culture process;

(c) about every 1 minute to about every hour throughout the bioreactor cell culture process;

(d) about every 1 minute to about every 30 minutes throughout the bioreactor cell culture process;

(e) about every 1 minute to about every 15 minutes throughout the bioreactor cell culture process; and

(f) about every 1 minute to about every 10 minutes throughout the bioreactor cell culture process.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the bioreactor cell culture process utilizes media selected from group consisting of:

a) serum-free media;

b) protein-free media; and

c) chemically defined media.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein said one or more carbohydrates or vitamins is analyzed by one or more means selected from the group consisting of:

(a) off line sample analysis;

(b) on-line sample analysis;

(c) in-line sample analysis; and

(d) at-line sample analysis.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the automated sampling device is one or more apparatuses used to monitor an assay selected from the group consisting of:

(a) enzyme-catalyzed assays; and

(b) chemical reaction assays.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the automated sampling device is one or more apparatuses used to perform one or more types of chromatographic analysis selected from the group consisting of:

a) gas chromatography;

b) liquid chromatography;

c) affinity chromatography;

d) supercritical fluid chromatography;

e) ion exchange chromatography;

f) size-exclusion chromatography;

g) reversed phase chromatography;

h) two-dimensional chromatography;

i) fast protein (FPLC) chromatography;

j) countercurrent chromatography;

k) chiral chromatography; and

l) aqueous normal phase (ANP) chromatography.

15. An automated method of enhancing the quantity of a bioproduct produced, or decreasing bioproduct production time, in a bioreactor cell culture producing the bioproduct, the method comprising:

(a) performing a first bioreactor cell culture process by:

(i) analyzing a bioreactor sample by means of an automated analytical device to generate data representative of the quantity of one or more carbohydrates or vitamins;

(ii) processing said data by means of computer-based processing program to determine an amount of nutrient media to add to the bioreactor;

(iii) adding said amount of nutrient media determined in (ii) to the bioreactor cell culture by means of an automated feed device when the quantity of said one or more carbohydrates or vitamins is below a target value; and

(iv) recording the time and amount of each nutrient media addition; and

(b) performing a subsequent bioreactor cell culture process, wherein the time and amount of each nutrient media addition in the subsequent bioreactor cell culture process is determined based on the time and amount of each nutrient media addition in the first bioreactor cell culture process.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the bioreactor of the first cell culture is smaller than the bioreactor of the subsequent cell culture.