ChEBE Faculty Research
Bernard J. Van Wie, Ph.D.
Bioprocessing
In the cell culture arena, Dr. Van Wie is a co-inventor of a novel centrifugal bioreactor process which he describes as an extreme reactor. It operates at extreme cell densities up to 108 cells/mL for mammalian cells, extreme pressures up to 7 atm, and higher shears up to 0.5 dyne/cm2. The high cell density will allow researchers to make 100 times the amount of monoclonal antibody as created in the same foot print for a conventional bioreactor and also will allow the study of multiple reactors at different conditions in the same small space. This will be helpful in studies on growth and productivity, while the high densities will also provide close contact of cells, allowing study of immune response and other cell interaction-dependent events. The cell density, high pressure and shear are expected to stimulate stress induced differentiation of certain cells, like chondrocytes, for cartilage production.