TY - JOUR

T1 - Study on the development and integration of 3D-printed optics in small-scale productions of single-use cultivation vessels

AU - Kuhnke, Louis Maximilian

AU - Rehfeld, Johanna Sophie

AU - Ude, Christian

AU - Beutel, Sascha

N1 - Funding Information: The authors thank the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) for support within the frame of the ZIM‐iniative, Project no. 16KN070927. Furthermore, the authors would like to thank the Open Access fund of Leibniz Universität Hannover for the funding of the publication of this article. Open access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

PY - 2022/6/2

Y1 - 2022/6/2

N2 - Integrating optical sensors and 3D-printed optics into single-use (SU) cultivation vessels for customized, tailor-made equipment could be a next big step in the bioreactor and screening platform development enabling online bioprocess monitoring. Many different parameters such as pH, oxygen, carbon dioxide and optical density (OD) can be monitored more easily using online measuring instruments compared to offline sampling. Space-saving integrated sensors in combination with adapted optics such as prisms open up vastly new possibilities to precisely guide light through SU vessels. This study examines how optical prisms can be 3D-printed with a 3D-inkjet printer, modified and then evaluated in a custom made optical bench. The prisms are coated or bonded with thin cover glasses. For the examination of reflectance performance and conformity prisms are compared on the basis of measured characteristics of a conventional glass prism. In addition, the most efficient and reproducible prism geometry and modification technique is applied to a customized 3D-printed cultivation vessel. The vessel is evaluated on a commercial sensor-platform, a shake flask reader (SFR) vario, to investigate its sensing-characteristics while monitoring scattered light with the turbidity standard formazine and a cell suspension of Saccharomyces cerevisiae as model organism. It is demonstrated that 3D-printed prisms can be used in combination with commercial scattered light sensor-platforms to determine OD of a microbial culture and that a 3D-printed unibody design with integrated optics in a cultivation vessel is feasible. In the range of OD600 0–1.16 rel.AU a linear correlation between sensor amplitude and offline determined OD can be achieved. Thus, enabling for the first time a measurement of low cell densities with the SFR vario platform. Moreover, sensitivity is also at least three times higher compared to the commonly used method.

AB - Integrating optical sensors and 3D-printed optics into single-use (SU) cultivation vessels for customized, tailor-made equipment could be a next big step in the bioreactor and screening platform development enabling online bioprocess monitoring. Many different parameters such as pH, oxygen, carbon dioxide and optical density (OD) can be monitored more easily using online measuring instruments compared to offline sampling. Space-saving integrated sensors in combination with adapted optics such as prisms open up vastly new possibilities to precisely guide light through SU vessels. This study examines how optical prisms can be 3D-printed with a 3D-inkjet printer, modified and then evaluated in a custom made optical bench. The prisms are coated or bonded with thin cover glasses. For the examination of reflectance performance and conformity prisms are compared on the basis of measured characteristics of a conventional glass prism. In addition, the most efficient and reproducible prism geometry and modification technique is applied to a customized 3D-printed cultivation vessel. The vessel is evaluated on a commercial sensor-platform, a shake flask reader (SFR) vario, to investigate its sensing-characteristics while monitoring scattered light with the turbidity standard formazine and a cell suspension of Saccharomyces cerevisiae as model organism. It is demonstrated that 3D-printed prisms can be used in combination with commercial scattered light sensor-platforms to determine OD of a microbial culture and that a 3D-printed unibody design with integrated optics in a cultivation vessel is feasible. In the range of OD600 0–1.16 rel.AU a linear correlation between sensor amplitude and offline determined OD can be achieved. Thus, enabling for the first time a measurement of low cell densities with the SFR vario platform. Moreover, sensitivity is also at least three times higher compared to the commonly used method.

KW - 3D-printing

KW - deepwell

KW - individual labware

KW - optical modification

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85126483690&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1002/elsc.202100131

DO - 10.1002/elsc.202100131

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85126483690

VL - 22

SP - 440

EP - 452

JO - Engineering in life sciences

JF - Engineering in life sciences

SN - 1618-0240

IS - 6

ER -